Rosita
Posted June 12th, 2007 by Gretjen
Directed by award-winning filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, Rosita , traces a young girl's journey from innocent victim to unwitting victor. In January 2003, news spreads throughout Central and South America that a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl has become pregnant as the result of a rape. Rosa, or Rosita as the girl becomes known in the press, is the only child of illiterate campesinos working in Costa Rica as coffee pickers at the time of the assault. Fearing for their daughter's life and mental health, Rosa's parents are determined to obtain an abortion for their child. The film reveals the machinations of politicians, doctors, and clergymen, but shields the young protagonist from the camera. Yet Rosa is at the heart of the film, revealing herself and her world through her own words and drawings. Rosita has screened internationally on public television, premiered at the SilverDocs Film Festival, toured as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and received a Cine Golden Eagle. Regardless of this acclaim the film has yet to receive a national broadcast in the United States.
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Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have worked together since 1990, making award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast. Their film Maggie Growls , was an ITVS-produced biography of Gray Panther founder Maggie Kuhn, was awarded the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media from the Council on Foundations in 2004. Other broadcast documentaries by Attie and Goldwater include I Witness: Shot Down in Pensacola ; Landowska: Uncommon Visionary and Motherless .