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Charlotte Metcalf is a British writer, journalist and podcaster. She has also made numerous award-winning documentaries.
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Charlotte Metcalf is a British writer, journalist and podcaster. She has also made numerous award-winning documentaries.
As a freelance features writer, Metcalf has contributed to a variety of publications from The Spectator , where she was Travel Editor, The Financial Times and The Sunday Times to Tatler , The Daily Telegraph , and the Daily Mail .
In recent years, she has edited numerous magazines, including High 50.com and Formula Life, and is currently Associate Editor of Country and Town House Magazine and Editor of Great British Brands.
She instigated a podcast at the start of the pandemic, which she co-hosts with Lord Vaizey, Britain's longest serving former Minister for Culture. Lockdown Culture developed into Break Out Culture as the restrictions were lifted and went on to be the go-to weekly cultural podcast for those in-the-know. Their guests have included Tracey Emin, David Hare, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Hugh Bonneville, Gilbert & George and countless heavy-weights in the Arts world. Bernardine Evaristo, Ben Okri, Rose Tremain and Barbara Taylor Bradford represent the breadth of the writers whom Metcalf has enticed onto the podcast.
In 2017, Metcalf broke the first Harvey Weinstein story in the British press when she interviewed Lysette Anthony for a Sunday Times exclusive.
Metcalf is the author of Walking Away: A Filmmaker's African Journal, a book about her time making films in Africa.
Her films cover subjects from corporate greed in America to transsexual prostitution and born-again Christianity. Her work has been commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, Channel Four, ITV and CNN. She has made films in Africa on cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and marriage by rape and abduction. Her film about William Hague, Just William...and Ffion, was said to break the mould of political documentary. [1]
Metcalf's documentary Schoolgirl Killer, [2] made for BBC Television in 1999, exposed the story of Aberash Bekele, a 14-year-old girl abducted and raped into marriage. Aberash escaped and shot her abductor when he gave chase. She was arrested for murder and put on trial, defended by the newly formed Women Lawyers Association. Metcalf managed to get into the courtroom to film[ citation needed ], and Aberash was eventually acquitted. The documentary also included Aberash's older sister, Mestawet, who was on the point of leaving Ethiopia and taking her place as a runner in the Olympic Games, when she was abducted into marriage. Metcalf filmed Mestawet in her hut, living with three children and her husband, serving home-brewed liquor for a living. BBC audiences were deeply affected by the film and sent in ample funds to give Aberash a safe, boarding-school education. An indefatigable lawyer on the case, Meaza Ashenafi, is one of the characters in a story based on a similar tragic theme, which was made into a drama feature in 2014, called DIFRET and executive produced by Angelina Jolie [3]
Metcalf has also made many films for the United Nations and for clients including Tesco, Unilever, the Labour Party, the International Olympic Committee and art galleries such as Philip Mould, Osborne Samuel and Robilant + Voena. She made the first party political broadcasts for Tony Blair and New Labour, including Clause Four.[ citation needed ]
Metcalf's film Living With Hunger won the Harry Chapin Media Awards, USA, 2004, the Japan Prize (Le Grand Prix), 2004, the International Education Programme Contest Award in Japan, 2004, and DocsBarcelona, International Documentary Film Festival, 2009 DocsBarcelona . [4] In 2001, her film I'm Not Racist...But won the Commission For Racial Equality Award. In 1998, Metcalf's film about rape and abduction in Ethiopia, Child Killers, was shortlisted for Best Film at the One World Media Awards, and won Best Film at the French Documentary Awards. Welcome To Womanhood, about female genital mutilation in Uganda, won a Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival and a Silver Apple Award at the National Educational Film and Video Festival in Oakland, California. 550 Million Strong won the First Prize at Prague Film Festival for Films on Development in 1995. In 1996 Young Wives Tales (UNFPA and Channel 4 News) about child brides in Ethiopia, won a special UNICEF award and was shortlisted for One World Media Award for best film.
Metcalf took a degree in English at Cambridge University. She lives in London with her two daughters.
Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM). From 1997 to 2003, she was a UN special ambassador against FGM. In 2002 she founded her own organization in Vienna, the Desert Flower Foundation. She has won numerous awards recognizing her work on eradicating FGM, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2007).
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–1999), played a recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), and performed frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield. From 1999 to 2001, she starred as Linda La Hughes on the BBC sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, for which she received a British Comedy Award and two BAFTA nominations.
Susannah Jane Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, London, England, United Kingdom. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1993. The last clue to Lamplugh's whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she called Mr. Kipper. The case remains unsolved with Lamplugh still missing, and is considered the world's biggest-ever missing person’s inquiry.
Kim Longinotto is a British documentary film maker, well known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto has made more than 20 films, usually featuring inspiring women and girls at their core. Her subjects have included female genital mutilation in Kenya, women standing up to rapists in India, and the story of Salma, an Indian Muslim woman who smuggled poetry out to the world while locked up by her family for decades.
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Levi Bellfield is an English serial killer, sex offender, rapist, kidnapper, and burglar. He was found guilty on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 23 June 2011, Bellfield was further found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler. On both occasions, the judge imposed a whole life order, meaning that Bellfield will serve the sentence without the possibility of parole. Bellfield was the first prisoner in history to have received two whole life orders.
There have been several studies concerning women in Ethiopia. Historically, elite and powerful women in Ethiopia have been visible as administrators and warriors. This never translated into any benefit to improve the rights of women, but it had meant that women could inherit and own property and act as advisors on important communal and tribal matters. As late as the first part of the 20th century, Queen Menen, consort of Emperor Haile Selassie I, had a decisive role in running the Ethiopian Empire. Workit and Mestayit regents to their minor sons have been held responsible for their provinces. They owed their rights to landed property because of a special type of land tenure that expected tenants to serve as militia to overlords, irrespective of gender. In 1896, Empress Tayetu Betul, wife of Emperor Menelik II, actively advised the government and participated in defending the country from Italian invasion. Prominent and other landowning women fought against the second invasion in 1935–41. With the assistance of European advisors, women in the ensuing period were kept out of the army and politics, even as advisors. Instead, they were restricted to family and household work of raising children and cooking. With a steady increase in female representation in education, they have started to undertake nursing, teaching, and other similarly supportive roles. Over the 2018–2019 period, their gradual participation in state politics has been increasing at a steady pace.
Bogaletch "Boge"Gebre was an Ethiopian scientist and activist. In 2010, The Independent characterized her as "the woman who began the rebellion of Ethiopian women." Along with her sister Fikirte Gebre, Gebre founded KMG Ethiopia, formerly called Kembatti Mentti Gezzima-Tope. The charity works to serve women in many areas, including preventing female genital mutilation and bridal abductions, the practice of kidnapping and raping young women to force them into marriage. According to the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia, such practices were the basis of 69% of marriages in the country as of 2003.
Myriam François, formerly known as Myriam François-Cerrah, is a British journalist, filmmaker and writer. Her work has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera. She is the founder and CEO of production company mpwr productions, which specialises in documentary films centred on minority voices.
Suzannah Rebecca Gabriella Lipscomb is a British historian and professor emerita at the University of Roehampton, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Higher Education Academy and the Society of Antiquaries, and has for many years contributed a regular column to History Today. She has written and edited a number of books, presented numerous historical documentaries on TV and is host of the Not Just the Tudors podcast from History Hit. She is also a royal historian for NBC.
Honor Diaries is a 2013 documentary film that explores violence against women in honor-based societies, with particular focus on female genital mutilation (FGM), violence against women and honor killings and forced marriage, and lack of access to education.
Ifrah Ahmed is a Somali-Irish social activist. She is the founder of the United Youth of Ireland non-governmental organization and the Ifrah Foundation.
Leyla Hussein is a Somali-born British psychotherapist and social activist. She is the founder of Dahlia project, one of the co-founders of the Daughters of Eve non-profit organization and a Chief Executive of Hawa's Haven. In 2020, Hussein was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews, making her the third woman and first woman of colour to hold this position. Hussein received significant criticism during her role as Rector of the University of St Andrews owing to her lack of involvement in the role.
KMG Ethiopia, also known as Kembatti Mentti Gezzima-Tope, is an indigenous non-governmental charitable organization based in Kembata, Ethiopia, dedicated to protecting women's rights, fostering women's health and supporting the environment. Founded in 1997 by sisters Bogaletch and Fikirte Gebre, the organization has expanded across the nation.
Jaha Dukureh is a Gambian women's right activist and anti-female genital mutilation campaigner. Dukureh was subjected to female genital mutilation in the Gambia when she was a little more than a week old. She is the founder and executive director of Safe Hands for Girls, an organization working to end FGM, and was the lead campaigner in The Guardian's End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign. In April 2016, she was named to the 2016 Time 100 list. Dukureh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in February 2018, has won the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, and is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for Africa. A feature film about Jaha's life was released by Accidental Pictures and The Guardian.
Meron Getnet is an Ethiopian actress, political activist, journalist and poet. She was known for her critique toward governmental stance during Meles Zenawi administration. A revered film and TV star in Ethiopia, she is best known for her role as Meaza Ashenafi in the critically acclaimed film Difret.
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Mehret Mandefro is an Ethiopian–American film/television producer, writer, physician and anthropologist. She is the group leader of the Indaba Africa, a co-founder of Realness Institute and co-founder of Truth Aid Media and is a board member of advisors for the shared Harvest Fund. She is also a recipient of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (2001) and in 2007 sat as one of the 41 distinguished New American panelists. In 2016, she was honoured by Carnegie Corporation of New York as one of America's Great Immigrants.
Jaha's Promise, is a 2017 American-Gambian documentary drama film co-directed and co-produced by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan. The film revolves around the life and activism of Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian anti-female genital mutilation campaigner against the most extreme form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), called infibulation or Type 3 FGM prevail in Gambian society.
Rayehe Mozafarian is an Iranian women and children rights activist, author, and documentary filmmaker. The founder of Stop FGM Iran group and Woman and Zoorkhaneh campaign, she is best known for her researches and raising awareness about female genital mutilation in Iran and challenging the country's Zoorkhaneh Sports Federation to unban women from participating Iranian's ancient sport pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals.