Beyond the Visual Notes: A Widow’s Story

Original title Beyond the Visual Notes: A Widow’s Story

Visual footage with commentary – In a cultural environment where the social status of widows is low, such a woman has to rely mainly upon the support of her sons and daughters’ husbands. In Augustina’s case, however, her only adult son left the village more than ten years ago and is living in a distant town. Her two adult daughters, who share her household, are both single mothers each with two children. Their situation is morally disapproved by many villagers. Reflecting upon their lives and seeing them in a wider social and cultural context, Augustina and her closest relatives critically ponder over the difficulties faced by an ‘unfortunate woman’ and a woman with ‘outside children’. Recorded between November 2007 and April 2008, the story – still in a rough cut – concerns itself with contemporary issues of women’s oppression on the one hand and of their liberation on the other.

Author/s Daniela Vávrová

Daniela Vavrova was born in Czechoslovakia. In 1999 she left Slovakia and has remained on the road ever since. As part of her MA thesis, she made a short experimental portrait entitled Enet Yapai: An Ambonwari Girl (2008) of Papua New Guinea, which is about the interaction between the filmed and the filmmaker, as well as the camera itself.

Research Daniela Vávrová and Borut Telban
Photography Daniela Vávrová
Sound Daniela Vávrová
Editing Daniela Vávrová