Local Filmmaker Profiles Kenyan Child Brides' Quest For Freedom
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A local filmmaker traveled halfway across the world to make a film about female genital mutilation, was shocked by what she witnessed in Kenya and will never forget the heroism of the girls she met. NY1's Cheryl Wills filed the following report. To make her documentary "Escape," filmmaker Marvi Lacar left her home in New York City and traveled to Kenya to visit a safe house for Masai girls. Those young girls are routinely married off to men sometimes four or five times their age and are also subjected to female genital mutilation.
The eight-, 10- and 12-year-old child brides are seeking shelter from the hellish lifestyle that was forced upon then.
"Emotionally, I don't think you are ever really prepared to see things like that happen to children," says Lacar.
The mutilated girls managed to work up the courage to runaway from their oppressive homes.
Lacar, who was born in the Philippines, says she wants her film to raise awareness and touch a nerve.
"They were essentially, despite everything they've been through, really well-spirited young girls. If anything, the one thing they kept saying was that they wanted to go to school," says the filmmaker.
Education and freedom are more important to the girls that their mutilated genitals, according to Lacar. The ritual mutilation, which involves the removal of the clitoris, is currently outlawed in Kenya but is still traditionally forced on girls.
"There was pressure from their peers because of the idea that you're not 'cleansed,' you're not pure," says Lacar.
The filmmaker has learned that Masai girls in Kenya have a pure heart and hopes to bring their plight to a global audience.