SPRING ISSUE FROM SMALLER TO GREATER £3.99 CULTURE ART ACTIVISM Ellie Bleach on creating Helping Grenfell’s The regeneration of musical luxury community heal waste into resources MockupSlingshot.indd 1 11/03/2019 12:53 On the Cover: Ellie Bleach shot for the inaugural issue of Slingshot. Photography by Verity Smiley-Jones. MockupSlingshot.indd 2 11/03/2019 12:53 SUSANNA JOSEPH MOLLY LONG KLARA BLAZEJOVSKA Editor-in-chief Sub-editor Digital editor JEKTAERINA DROZDOVICA TORBJOERN JOERSTAD Social editor Picture editor Welcome. Slingshot was birthed in a set of ideals born from a broken media landscape. Sometimes being a journalist starting out can feel a bit like facing Goliath armed with a few bits of wood. But with only idealism to lose, here is the best manifesto for the vision in our heads of what journalism should look like. In response to an in- dustry that is struggling to sustain itself in a tangled web of advertising, SEOs and Silicon Valley millionaires, we wanted to make something that was simple in its message and execution. Stories we cared about, covered responsibly, and delivered to the best of our capabilities. We’re so grateful to everyone who has helped this issue come to fruition. While our objective was always clear, the formation of this magazine has been a long process and involved too many collaborators to list here (they are all credited in the overlying pages). It’s been emboldening to see what can come of shared values, talent, graft and passion. Thank you for being here and supporting Slingshot. We hope you are as inspired by the fruits of our labour as we are by the network of people prepared to support an honest, ardent and potent future for creative sectors. Susanna Joseph MockupSlingshot.indd 3 11/03/2019 12:53 What are you looking for? Bringing FGM on Kindness to Film 6 Making Comedy Compassion 10 Go Further Art and 14 Optics of Women Motherhood Who Love 16 Women Earthling 18 Ed’s Unity Diner 24 Drag,Drag, NowNow RevitalisingRevitalising 34 FoodFood WasteWaste 30 Feminism Revisited Lovely Pair: 38 Pubs and Inclusivity TheThe GreatGreat 40 WellnessWellness ConCon 44 SurvivingSurviving Online:Online: AA CreativeCreative Brexit StruggleStruggle Protests in 56 Pictures 60 MockupSlingshot.indd 4 11/03/2019 12:53 5 EllieEllie BleachBleach 26 CopingCoping withwith GrenfellGrenfell 48 MockupSlingshot.indd 5 11/03/2019 12:53 STOLEN SEXUALITY Images: Jocelyne Saab Nadim Deaibes Jekaterina Drozdovica MockupSlingshot.indd 6 11/03/2019 12:53 7 Jekaterina Drozdovica looks back at a film that translates the horrors of female genital mutilation into a feature-length insight. Jocelyne Saab’s Dunia (Kiss Me Not On The Eyes) follows a young victim of FGM on a journey to explore her sexuality “Come on, my pretty, what are you afraid sexual pleasure in Arab poetry. of?” a grandmother asks an eight-year-old But it’s hard to study something you Yasmine curled up by the wall in their don’t understand. Her boyfriend, Mam- living room in Cairo. “We’ll remove a douh, accuses Dunia of physical coldness. small piece of your skin. It will only do From her secret poems, we discover her you good.” She puts a green blanket on mutilation and lack of sexual desire. “I the floor and a white tissue above. As the want it, but my body resists,” she says. nurse comes in, the grandmother forces Instead, Dunia translates her caged sexu- Yasmine on to the tissue. They open the ality into a passionate belly dance lasting girl’s legs and a double-edged razor blade one third of the two-hour-long film. Saab shines in the nurse’s hands. Yasmine maintains aesthetic harmony and shows resists, but her grandmother is holding her body curves without being vulgar. The up- legs and the upper body. The girl screams beat Arabic songs entertain and soften the breathlessly. The razor makes a sharp noise drama. The tension peaks as little Yasmine and the tissue is filled with red. opens her legs in front of the razor blade. Yasmine is a secondary character in the At least 200 million girls today have 2005 film “Dunia” directed by Leba- survived FGM, often in much worse condi- nese journalist Jocelyne Saab. The scene tions than Yasmine. Some real-life victims described shows female genital mutilation recall lying in a tent with tens other girls (FGM) – ritual cutting of a clitoris and all cut by one knife. Some saw their own labia to prevent sexual desire and ensure flesh on the ground. Somalian-born top women’s loyalty. The movie’s protagonist, model, Waris Dirie, was three years old Dunia (Hanan Turk), is a belly dancer when she was mutilated. In the biographi- and a literature undergraduate in Cairo. cal 2009 film “Desert Flower” birds ate her She writes her thesis on the expressions of sliced clitoris and labia. Opposite page and below: Stills of Hanna Tork in the 2005 film playing Dunia, a belly dancer and victim of FGM. MockupSlingshot.indd 7 11/03/2019 12:53 “Come on Although Saab’s account of mutila- fails to realise that his paternalistic figure tion takes a lighter form, she was among overshadows her main protagonist. Ironi- my pretty, the first to address the taboo subject in cally, it seems that Dunia would always be cinema. Punished for her bravery, Saab frigid if not for Beshir’s guidance. received numerous threats for opposing He ignorantly describes sexual pleasure what are the practice. The state-sponsored Egyp- as “the summit of a peak that you only tian production company cut funding ten reach with pain and patience.” Well, you afraid days before shooting. Authorities tried certainly not the extent of pain Dunia to censor the movie as pornographic and suffered when first having sex. In severe of?” ruined the distribution. “But there is not types of mutilation, the whole genitalia a [single] Egyptian family that doesn’t are cut and the wound is sewed closed have it on a pirated DVD,” Saab said leaving a small hole for urination and proudly at the Vesoul International Film periods. Victims suffer from birth com- Festival of Asian Cinema in 2009. Today plications, chronic infections, urinating the DVD is sold on Amazon for 25$. problems and excessive bleeding. Saab “Dunia” is a movie about women’s so- ignores such details, which might be a cial liberation and we see positive female plus for those who faint easily. characters there, such as her two progres- But what is the explanation for such sive friends – Inayate and Arwe. Inayate cruelty? Mutilation is not a religious is a taxi driver who openly shows sexual requirement. The practise dates back at appetite, teasing her husband throughout least 2000 years and there is no single the film. She acts as Yasmine’s mother location of origin. Instead, FGM is and opposes mutilation for the girl, yet rooted in gender inequality. Women fails to protect her. Arwe is a university are men’s property; they must be loyal professor, free-spirited and financially and obedient, while sexual pleasure is a independent. The women meet in the privilege they are not afforded. The power evenings, smoke shisha and share person- of social norms is best shown in the 2004 al struggles. Senegalese movie “Mooladé” set in a They are supportive friends, but remote village in the west-African country hardly mentors. Instead, Dunia looks Burkina Faso. An open-minded Collé up to blind professor Beshir, her thesis refuses mutilation for her daughter and supervisor, oppositional intellectual and helps four girls to escape the ritual. The handsome brunette. In multiple scenes, villagers condemn Collé; her husband the two discuss poetry, love and desire, whips her publicly to the cheers of the but it’s mostly Beshir speaking. Saab crowd. Left: The late director Jocelyne Saab was a journalist prior to making the film, and had seen the rippling effects FGM has on on communities. Opposite page: Graphic by Jekaterina Drozdovica MockupSlingshot.indd 8 11/03/2019 12:53 9 In “Dunia”, the story is black and white. Saab fails to portray the stigma leading Yasmine’s grandmother to be- lieve mutilation is beneficial. The same stigma influences diaspora communities in Europe to cut their daughters. In the award-winning 2013 documentary “Bref” Christina Pitouli interviews Spanish immigrants from Africa who voluntarily chose mutilation to secure social status and chances to marry. For them, cutting is a social expectation, like shaving legs or tweezing eyebrows. In England alone there were 1030 newly reported cases from January to March 2018. During school summer holidays thousands of migrant families travel to their native countries where mutilation is easier and cheaper. The practise is illegal in the UK, but the lack of evidence makes it hard to prosecute. The girls rarely report their parents and the best way to save them seems to be shifting the social norm. We need films like “Dunia” to bring awareness and foster change. Saab pro- duced a light movie for those who want to dive into the topic, but are afraid of sickening details. Although the plot has some contextual gaps, the movie pleases with symmetry, harmonic colour-range and high-quality aesthetics. Dunia is an es- sential watch to reflect on the importance of female autonomy in building gender equality. MockupSlingshot.indd 9 11/03/2019 12:53 Images: Courtesy of Barry Ferns MockupSlingshot.indd 10 11/03/2019 12:53 11 THE SERIOUS JOKESTER After more than 25 years in the industry, comedian Barry Ferns realized his true mission; to create a community for independent comedians to thrive, while staying true to the philosophy of people’s time being more precious than their money.