‘Silence has a woman’s face’: Ecuadorian Jarsom Wayans portrays gender-based violence in an international film

Claudia Nascimento, a middle-class woman of African descent, runs away from her partner after being the victim of violence and attempted femicide. These experiences will be the content of a book that she writes anonymously and that will connect her with Lázaro Samaniego, another survivor of this type of abuse, which is narrated in Silence has a woman’s facefeature debut of Quito Jarson Wayans.

Wayans, who is based in Brazil, chose this country to shoot and produce his first film, which also has a team from that town, as well as from Portugal, Spain and Uruguay.

“When I arrived in Brazil, I opened a production company, I started directing, producing theater; and from that place we began to venture into directing, because I wanted to gain experience to be able to reach the big screen, as it is to make a film”, says Wayans about the process prior to the film, which he carries out through his production company Eva Films. , which is named after the first camera they acquired to work with.

The 33-year-old filmmaker explains that Silence has a woman’s face It is born from a letter that his mother left him. “My mom came to visit me at a time before the pandemic, and I was putting on a theater musical and hadn’t had the time and courage to read the letter, which was to write a book about my mom’s life. She talks there about violence. I dedicated myself to reading the letter in the middle of the pandemic and, between crying and everything that happens, I dedicated myself to writing together with a friend to make a short film. During that process, we took different paths, and I continued with the project, which became a feature film, ”says Wayans.

While the film was in development, Wayans became an ambassador for the organization Amago, a start-up that provides panic buttons to women who experience attempted femicide or violence. After getting involved with this entity, the Ecuadorian discovered the need to not only tell the story of his mother and sister, but of all the women he had met in said foundation.

“In the process, I won a Brazilian fund to begin the development of the film, which allowed me to start shooting the teaser of the film and to be able to reach more windows and access, more money to be able to produce the film. I managed to go to several international festivals, among them, one in Argentina (Ventana al Sur), last year, which allowed me to close international co-productions: it has a Uruguayan and Portuguese co-production”, explains Wayans about the film, which had locations in Brazil , Montevideo and Spain.

Silence has a woman’s face has an international cast that includes several names, such as Luzia Rosa (Claudia Nascimento), Sergio Mur (Lázaro Samaniego), Sacha Bali (Saulo Leal), Elisa Lucinda (Nubia), Paula Moura (Estella Guimaraes), Natalia Oreiro ( Lázaro’s mother), Lizette Nedreiros (Ruth) and Pedro Caetano (Gustavo Chebe).

Eva Films and Sanuto Producciones, together with Amago, the House of Brazilian Women and other organizations, seek with this production to open paths for social dialogue, addressing the needs of more than three million women in situations of family violence.

The project, Wayans says, aims to donate 10% of its profits from panic buttons to women who are victims of domestic violence. The film aims to reach more than 30 million people, between men and women, between 16 and 65 years old; people from popular sectors, peripheral towns of Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Spain and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), during the years 2022 and 2023, through social organizations, public agencies, such as educational work, through extensive debates in the universities.

In October it will begin to participate in different festivals and, at the beginning of next year, after carnival, it will hit theaters, including those in Ecuador. (I)