Filmmaker Mary Ann Smothers Bruni attends screening of documentary “Quest for Honor”

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, a screening of a 2009 Sundance Film Festival documentary portraying the phenomenon of honor killings in Iraqi Kurdistan was held in Collins Cinema.  The documentary, titled "A Quest for Honor," follows women activists struggling to investigate and reveal cases of honor killings, while also providing a safe haven for those women who have escaped their fatal situation.

The film's director, Mary Anne Smothers Bruni was on campus for the day.  Bruni interacted with classes in the morning, attended the screening of her documentary and led a 45-minute Q-and-A session following the film.

Honor killings are heavily scrutinized on the world stage.  An honor killing occurs when a woman is killed by her family in the name of the family's honor, specifically for suspicion of adultery. Particularly horrifying cases are where women have been falsely accused or when a woman has suffered a long history of strenuous household work or having the role of a sex object.

The practice of honor killings remains an incredibly delicate issue when placed under the western lens. Professor Winifred Wood of the writing program and the cinema and media studies department, introduced the film and the director on Tuesday.

"I think [Bruni] handles [this issue] very well…Westerners pose a risk in coming from outside to look in at another culture…[The film] let's the culture speak for itself, [showing] changes in the culture and the effort women make to exact these changes," Wood said.

This was a point of interest for Laura Bruno '14 when she saw the film on Tuesday. "I was excited to see ["Quest for Honor"] because there are a lot of different cultures in the world, and even though we may not all agree upon ways of doing things, it's interesting to see where [another culture's] customs come from, why they carry them out, and how [these customs] are evolving with time and Westernization."

"Quest for Honor" delves into the tension of women in Iraqi Kurdistan struggling to protect other women in the community. The film follows a Kurdish woman who runs a women's center that shelters women in danger and investigates murders of women, seeking to determine whether these homicides are in the name of honor killings or not.

For Wood, the film felt accessible for any viewer.  "The commitment and struggle of women running the shelter is similar to the commitment and struggle of women running rape centers in the United States," she said.  "[The film] resonates with the struggle of women committing to address issues of violence against other women."

The film closes by tying these heavy issues in Iraq to problems in the United States; Bruni ends the documentary with captions declaring the number of instances of domestic violence in the US.

Heavy cooperation is present throughout the film between Kurdish authorities and the women's center to solve these instances of honor killings. This is emphasized to show the enforcement of the law in Iraqi Kurdistan, establishing honor killings as illegal—it is the only region in Iraq with such a law. Still, the murders are occurring across the region, and some women are fighting to enforce the law.

Wood pointed out that as an example of activist filmmaking—a growing trend within documentaries—this film still maintained an investigative and fact-based coverage of honor killings.  "The people in the film emerge as individuals. [The film] is matter of fact; it's clear about the facts but doesn't sensationalize them," she said.

But the documentary does create a sense of loss and remorse for the women killed.  This is true even in the film's promotional image, featuring a photograph of a victim taken on a camera phone—the only picture left of this woman.   Wood also described the sensation of absence and loss as enforced with the cinematographic use of empty frames.

"Kurds were on both sides of our cameras—busy at work as co-producers, assistant directors, story consultants, cameramen, production managers, advisors and translators," Bruni stated on the film's promotional website.  "We let the Kurds involved tell their own story and reveal themselves without explanations or interruptions from outsiders or experts."