ACTORAS DE CAMBIO

“Actoras de Cambio, which means “”Actresses for Change””, is a feminist collective in Guatemala which was founded to break the silence surrounding the rapes committed mainly against indigenous women during the 36 year-long civil war. It is estimated that soldiers – and sometimes even resistants – raped around 40,000 women during the armed conflict. It took fifteen years after the end of the war to begin to release the patriarchal straightjacket imposed on female victims, who until then hadn’t been able to talk about these crimes committed against them. This documentary shows the work accomplished by the survivors and the collective, who enabled women to come together in small local groups to tell their stories and hear those of others, and to understand this sexual violence in the context of men’s global domination over women. Building on these meetings, the groups of women developed their own healing methods, began to take action to achieve alternative forms of justice and organise festivals of memory, to fight against men’s impunity.”