At the end of November 2006, eighty-four films from 18 African countries were submitted for inclusion in the Pan African Film Festival devoted to GBV held in Dakar, Senegal. The festival was organised by UNFPA to call attention to GBV and break the silence surrounding the issue.

The films were shown at five different sites around Dakar followed by panel discussions, featuring networks of religious leaders, parliamentarians, journalists and traditional communicators. The films were also shown at adolescent centres and then travelled to other African countries in order to make others aware of the issues.

The Zimbabwean filmmaker Tawanda Gunda-Mupengo took home the $1,000 first prize for ‘Spell My Name’, the moving story of a young teacher who uncovers the sexual abuse of one of her students by the school’s headmaster. Other top honours went to Ugandan filmmaker Caroline Kamya, about a Tanzanian woman who fleas an abusive relationship of 10 years and forms an organisation fighting for the rights of women and men affected by violence in ‘Women Wake Up’. ‘Behind Closed Doors’, by Kenyan filmmaker Jane Murago-Munene tells the story of a woman who seeks justice having been abused by her husband. Senegalese Sembene Ousmane received an award for his film about a man who refused to have his only daughter excised. And finally a UNICEF-sponsored film depicting the lives of Egyptian street children in their own words was also honoured.