International Committee of the Red Cross: Eleven x 3-minute films Women facing war
In 2001, the ICRC undertook a major study on the effects of war on women. The study was one of the first global, operationally grounded analyses of how armed conflict affects women, not just as victims, but as actors with specific needs and coping strategies.
To give visibility to the study’s findings, the ICRC commissioned photographer Nick Danziger and Urban Films to produce what became a series of award-winning films.
Working in the ICRC's communication department, I led the production, developing stories and messages with ICRC project heads and working closely with Danziger and his team. Filming took place over 7 months, with ICRC delegations in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Colombia, the Balkans, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. The resulting eleven 3-minute films, each carrying messages of protection under international humanitarian law, were powerful individual stories of eleven women’s courage in the face of armed conflict, including exposure to sexual violence, missing loved ones, displacement, and lack of access to healthcare.
The films were broadcast by national television stations worldwide, produced in five languages, and used extensively by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, UN agencies, NGOs, and at conferences and training workshops.
More broadly, the films underpinned the study’s agenda-setting role by contributing to the evolution of both ICRC and humanitarian practice, including more systematic gender-sensitive programming, stronger prevention and response on sexual violence, and increased engagement with armed actors and legal frameworks.
A decade later, Nick Danziger revisited the stories, tracking down and re-photographing ten of the eleven women. His series of photographs and the films were featured in an exhibition held in multiple cities, including London’s Imperial War Museum and Canada’s War Museum in Ottawa.
Credits
Photographer and filmmakers: Nick Danziger & Urban Films
ICRC Producer: Jo Maxwell Scott
Executive Producer, Women Facing War project: Charlotte Lindsey
