Please note: this event has passed
This unique event brings into conversation two different representations and mediums of military families, situated thousands of miles apart and made meaningful through different histories: a short film about Congolese Military Wives and a photo exhibition about UK Military Wives. Join us for a wine and tapas film screening and photo exhibition and get to meet the developer/photographer behind these visual representations. Abstracts for both the film and exhibition detailed below:
Resilient Women
22 minutes (2018)
Director: Laura Zullaert
Co-Developer (who will be present at the film screening): Dr. Judith Verweijen
The spouses of soldiers from the Congolese army (FARDC) in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo talk about their lives, difficulties, position in Congolese society, and their ambivalent relationship with the army. We hear about how they travel immense distances, often on foot and with children, to follow their husbands, who are constantly being redeployed and almost permanently at the frontlines. We see the daily lives of these women, and their struggle to survive, selling vegetables on the market, cleaning, cooking and washing. Meanwhile, we get an insight into the causes of their hardship–including soldiers’ low wages and the embezzlement of funds within the army.
Not Just a Wife
Photo Exhibition
Photographer: Wendy Faux
We all have a story in ourselves and this is a small part of the story of the community to which I belong. It is a unique worldwide community of military spouses. ‘Not Just a Wife’ was my ‘mid-life crisis’ idea. I realised that many people were happy to accept me as ‘wife of’ or used the official term of ‘dependent’ but they didn’t know my back story; very few people took the time to ask me about ‘me’.
It has been a privilege to interview these women and men. I have cried, laughed and been aghast at some of their stories. It is a different lifestyle that relies on community. Being on a ‘patch’ ensures that you are with like minded people. You know they will understand, often without any words being spoken. Whether it was women joining together on the battlefield and long marches or in 1854 when the first ‘quarters’ were built. It is this community strength that ‘permits’ the soldiers to confidently deploy knowing that the support is there for their loved ones. Without this community life would be so much harder. Family don’t understand; military ‘family’ have lived it with you.
A review of this community is currently underway; a community that has been around for centuries. This exhibition therefore becomes more important as it documents a lifestyle that is hard to define and could, within a couple of years, be a diminishing thing of the past. As world leaders look to create communities we find ourselves within the military having ours being taken away.