films about women and girls
12 Apr 2009 Leave a Comment
I just wanted to share two videos about women and girls empowerment that came out recently. The first one is A Powerful Noise which came out a few days before International Women’s Day. The second one is Where the Water Meets the Sky which I just discovered today. I have not seen either movies, but I am planning on doing so when I get the chance. Anyways, if you’re interested at all check them out.
Hanh is an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam. Nada, a survivor of the Bosnian war. And Jacqueline works the slums of Bamako, Mali. Three very different lives. Three vastly different worlds. But they share something in common: Power. These women are each overcoming gender barriers to rise up and claim a voice in their societies. Through their empowerment and ability to empower others, Hanh, Nada and Jacqueline are sparking remarkable changes. Fighting AIDS. Rebuilding communities. Educating girls.
Narrated by Morgan Freeman, Where the Water Meets the Sky is the story of a remarkable group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia, who are given a unique opportunity: to learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent.
Many in the group can’t read or write, most are desperately poor, and few have been exposed to film or television. But with the help of two teachers, this class of 23 women learn to shoot a film that portrays a subject of their own choosing. It involves an issue that is traumatic for them all, and rarely spoken about: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.
Their film recounts the real-life experiences of Penelop, an 18-year-old orphan, and her struggle to provide for herself and her siblings in the wake of her parents’ deaths.
What begins as a workshop about filmmaking, and a quest to tell Penelop’s story, becomes a journey in empowerment as the women rise to the challenge of pressing their community to change.
Uplifting and poignant, Where the Water Meets the Sky is the story of an unforgettable group of women who defy long traditions of silence and who demonstrate with courage, humor and resilience that their futures are once again something of promise.
