"Seeds of Hope" Screens in Canada with Filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies kicks off her North America visit on Tuesday, November 18 with the Montreal premiere of "Seeds of Hope". The Pulitzer Center-supported documentary explores how one woman in the worn-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has given hope to other rape survivors by creating a farming community and support network.

After the film screening, Lloyd-Davies will participate in a panel discussion with experts in the field of sexual violence in conflict. They include Myriam Denov and Vrinda Narain from McGill University and Mélanie Coutu from OCCAH, the Canadian research institute on humanitarian crisis and aid. The event is hosted by the British Consulate in Montreal and McGill's Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies.

"Seeds of Hope" Screening and Discussion
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
6:00-9:00 PM
McGill University
Chancellor Day Hall, Moot Court, Room 100
3644 rue Peel
Montreal, Canada


Admission for the evening is free, but please RSVP to Lucile Smith by emailing [email protected].

"Seeds of Hope" follows Masika Katsuva, herself a rape survivor, who has built a center in the DRC to provide medical, practical, and psychological support to over 6,000 women and children. Together, they cultivate crops of maize and beans and share their experiences, to heal, to rebuild their lives, and to plant their seeds of hope. The Pulitzer Center-supported reporting project in Congo by Lloyd-Davies resulted in "Seeds of Hope."

Lloyd-Davies is an award-winning BBC and Al Jazeera documentary filmmaker and photojournalist who's been making films and taking pictures about human rights issues in areas of conflict since 1992. Her on-going reporting from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo focuses on the sexual violence against the civilian population. More of her work on this topic can be found in her project Congo: Consequences of a Conflict with No End.

Denov is a James McGill Professor in the School of Social Work. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge where she was a Commonwealth Scholar. Her research and teaching interests lie in the areas of children and youth in adversity, and international child protection, with an emphasis on war and political violence, children in armed conflict, and gender-based violence. She has worked nationally and internationally with former child soldiers, survivors of sexual violence, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Coutu is the Program Director of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative at McGill University. She has a Masters degree in International Relations, Foreign Policy and International Cooperation from the University of Quebec in Montreal. Coutu has authored/co-authored papers and presented on Gender-based violence in the armed conflict, namely in the DRC, and on the gendered discourses and practices in UN peacekeeping mission, humanitarian assistance and international development. She is affiliated with the Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Aid.

Narain is an Assistant Professor at McGill University where she holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Law and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies in the Faculty of Arts. She is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Her research and teaching focus on constitutional law, social diversity and feminist legal theory.

The UK government has called for international action to address the problem of sexual violence in conflict. "Seeds of Hope" screened earlier in 2014 in London in conjunction with the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the largest gathering ever brought together on this subject. Foreign Secretary William Hague co-chaired the summit with Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, two years after they launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. Twitter: #TimeToAct