Organized by Global India Fund, Magic Bus.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A screening of the documentary film Girl Rising – directed by Oscar-nominee Richard E. Robbins and narrated by a host of Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Priyanka Chopra – was hosted at the National Museum of Women in the Arts by the Global India Fund and the Magic Bus organization.
“Tonight is about engaging young people,” said Dr. Amita Vyas, the founder and president of the Global India Fund, in her opening remarks just before the film screening. “It’s about bringing them into service and philanthropy. To all the young people here: it is you that will solve the world’s greatest problems.”
The film is broken into nine vignettes, each one chronicling the difficulties in the life of a girl or young woman from various parts of the world. They come from different places in South America, Africa and Asia – Sokha from Cambodia, Wadley from Haiti, Suma from Nepal, Yasin from Egypt, Asmera from Ethiopia, Ruksana from India, Senna from Peru, Mariama from Sierra Leone, and Amina from Afghanistan.
All these girls are shown fighting for basic human rights in parts of the world where, just because they’re not boys, they’re treated as third-rate citizens. Families go homeless trying to send their girls to school in some cities, while in others, girls don’t even go to school for fear of being raped or killed.
Throughout the film, narrator Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List) lists off alarming facts about the treatment of girls in these parts of the world: the leading cause of death for girls under 15 is childbirth, the chances of a girl having fewer and more literate children improves drastically if she goes to school, and so on.
Each vignette has its own writer, a native of the country that the subject is from, to translate the story into English so it can be narrated. Each story has its own narrator, and they run the gamut of Hollywood and Bollywood’s finest; in addition to the aforementioned Meryl Streep (Doubt) and Priyanka Chopra (Gunday), the film also features voiceovers from Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Selena Gomez (Spring Breakers), Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass), Salma Hayek (Frida), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), and Frieda Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire).
The film is a powerful reminder of the many things that people take for granted, such as basic education, food and water, and a roof over our head. The screening event also featured a brief discussion with three female leaders – Holly Gordon, the film’s executive producer and executive director; Kate Roberts, the senior vice-president of Population Services International; and Indrani Goradia, the founder or Indrani’s Light Fountain and a founding member of the Women’s Investment Network.
Copies of the Saris to Suits calendar, a 2014 calendar created by Patti Tripathi in an effort to highlight successful Indian women leaders and inspire young girls, were distributed at the event. Additionally, pieces of art and specially designed iPad bags – sewn by battered women who were taken in by the Global India Fund and taught how to sew to make a living – were sold, with 100% of the proceeds going towards helping impoverished women and children in India.
The event was co-sponsored by the Magic Bus organization, which since 1999 has been “delivering programs to children and young adults (aged 7-16) across India [in] vulnerable settings such as urban slums, institutions, and poverty stricken rural areas using a unique ‘Sport for Development’ methodology.”
The trailer for the film Girl Rising can be viewed below. For more information about the film and ways to get involved, please visit the film’s website, found here.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com