In light of Women’s Month, renowned South African author, former TV and Radio broadcaster, and documentary maker Tracy Going, is set to release “That’s What She Said – A Social Inquiry.”
The documentary is set to be screened today at the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) Auditorium in Johannesburg.
Going shared that such a screening is important as August marks Women’s Month in South Africa, and it’s important to address the prevalent issue of gender-based violence (GBV).
“Telling your story is the very first step in the healing process. It is only when we are able to verbalise and think through the horror of what might have happened, are we then able to start processing and accepting what has transpired. Until then, it sits deep inside of us and controls us in ways that are crippling. When one person tells their story they silently give permission to the next person to tell theirs,” Going said.
Going offers up her story to be scrutinised by a random group of men in the present. They watch her account as it is displayed in a theatre production adaptation of her book. The film documents this process and the frank discussions that follow the performance. Offering a unique social dialogue, to bring an important message across as a relatable film without diminishing the abused, or men / women in general.
She added that despite the personal toll it took telling her story, it was something she felt compelled to do. She said that telling a story, especially in a book form, was a powerful way to be heard.
Going said her inspiration behind the documentary was also based on previous work addressing GBV.
“I wrote my memoir Brutal Legacy in outrage at what was transpiring in the Oscar Pistorius/Reeva Steenkamp trial many years ago. I also wrote it to offer insight into what happens in a home where domestic violence is taking place and to draw attention to how brutal the court system is for a victim. The memoir was given further prominence when theatre director Lesedi Job took the book and brought it to life on stage,” Going said.
Furthermore, the theatre production was performed to much acclaim with Natasha Sutherland having adapted the play as well as playing the lead role of an older Tracy looking back on her life, exploring how it all happened and the lasting impact domestic violence has on victims.
Going concluded that this documentary is her offering to the ongoing fight against the scourge that is domestic violence and GBV, and that she will continue to speak out when asked.
Along with Going, the documentary was co-produced by award-winning theatre director, actress and voiceover artist Job, and director of the film, Sutherland.
Sutherland said that the documentary was a huge passion project and remains at the forefront of her endeavours at the moment to create conversations about this topic and having the uncomfortable discussions.
"From feedback it seems the documentary has helped people who have been impacted by the GBV landscape, all factors of people, past survivors, current victims, perpetrators, people questioning their societal norms, the accountability of the individual and the collective," Sutherland said.
Sutherland added that someone told her that the documentary created a gentle but powerful resolution between a mother and daughter recovering from the impact of an abusive father, while someone else said it was an affirming experience for her because she realised by watching the doccie, how far she had come in her journey of breaking the cycle and taking profound and concrete steps towards healing.
She said another guy, a devoted father of girls, said that even though GBV is not something that has touched his immediate world, watching the doccie really made him revisit the conversations and language that people use with regards to gender and societal pressure and paradigms.
"So that fact that the doccie was born from a person telling their own painful story and that in turn has led to others sharing their own stories offering different shades of the GBV landscape, which in turn leads to others reflecting on their own experiences or thoughts on this particular pandemic, for me this story helping to trigger and unravel other stories is as Tracy said our offering right now. It’s not just a documentary film floating In isolation on a screen, it’s having a knock-on effect. It’s a living breathing survivor story that helps other stories to live and breathe," Sutherland concluded.
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