GIRLS: WOMEN TOO EARLY

Girls: Women Too Early Synopsis

Christine, 17-years-old, got married when she was 15, lost her first child when she was 16, and she is now seven months pregnant. Rose, 16-years-old, is currently breastfeeding first child of five months.

Christine dropped out of school in secondary two and Rose dropped out at the end of primary six, both due to a lack of financial availability from their families. Christine and Rose live in a very remote and rural area in the tropical highland forest in Cameroon, making their living through farming cocoa. They represent thousands of teenage mothers in Cameroon.

Africa has the world’s highest rate of adolescent pregnancy, a factor that affects the health, education, and earning potential of millions of African girls.

About the Filmmakers

Paolo Patruno is social-documentary photographer and filmmaker. He traveled throughout Africa for more than ten years, documenting global topics, including health care, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Since 2011 he is working on a long term project called “BIRTH IS A DREAM” which aims to document and raise awareness about maternal health in Africa, extended to developed/industrialized countries.

More From the Filmmakers

Women bleed. Get over it. Taboos surrounding women’s health and sexuality are harmful to women. Women should be able to openly talk about hormones, bra straps, workplace parity, and body issues. Women should be able to enjoy sex without being slut-shamed. Women should be paid the same wage as their male counterparts. Women should have fair representation in the media, and the ability to show a little armpit hair without having “F*** you, feminism” appear in the Instagram comments.

The purpose of creating this film is to help break the taboos associated with the female experience, allowing a venue for us to share stories related to female bodies and identities. The story allows us to laugh at the challenges we face regularly. We hope that this project will contribute to more women’s voices in the media; normalizing diverse women on screen, women behind the scenes of the film industry, and women in comedy to empower more to share their stories.