WUNRN
With its online premiere today, this docu-drama handed the reins over to
two young women to tell how they challenged their local mayor to increase
girls' access to health care and education. This different way of filmmaking
ended up being an empowering process itself.
As a
filmmaker whose job it is to capture and retell others' stories, I take my
responsibility very seriously. Which is why as my career took off, I started to
question whether I, as a Western filmmaker who produces many global health
advocacy films, should be telling stories of women and girls living in such
different realities than my own. Though I work to ensure that I retain the
dignity of each woman or girl I portray, I wasn't sure I could do a
non-"victimizing" documentary when my films focus on such serious
topics as HIV/AIDS, obstetric fistula,
unsafe abortions and the impact of war on young women.
This
changed when I shot "ˇPODER!"
"ˇPODER!"
(the Spanish word for "power"), my new
docu-drama film, which has its online premiere today, showed me the value of
involving young women in the storytelling process. This film tells the
real-life story of how two indigenous girls in
Young women in this Mayan community face numerous challenges, as only 10
percent of Mayan girls finish primary school and nearly half have babies before
they turned 18, according to Let Girls Lead, a nonprofit
with headquarters in
Atypical Approach
To tell
this story as authentically as possible, I knew I couldn't shoot the film as a
typical documentary. I did not want to approach the story with a focus on the
challenges, but rather wanted to examine what the girls did in spite of them.
So I used a different method for the production process. I interviewed Elba and
Emelin twice (before my trip by phone and then once I arrived in
For three
days we traveled around their small town, shooting various scenes (sometimes by
script, others ad-lib) in different outfits, to create different atmospheres
for the film. We turned this small town, with around 20,000 inhabitants, into a
film set and we had a lot of fun.
But what
transpired during the shoot was the real revelation for me -- that having girls
involved in telling their own story can add another element to girls-centered
advocacy. The film production itself was an empowering process.
The ripple effect was incredible. The town residents started asking why we
were making a film. The mothers started talking about what
In Girls' Hands
On March
12, "ˇPODER!"
had its world premiere at the United Nations 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of
Women in
Along with
the online premiere of "ˇPODER!," we are launching a new "Film
Ambassador" program where the film – along with screening guidelines, a
recording of the poem and "ˇPODER!" swag such as stickers and pens – can
be provided to girl leaders worldwide so they can host their own screenings and
share the messages with their family and peers. Additional screenings are being
arranged with girls' organizations in
As I
reflect on my time in Guatemala shooting the film and the wonderful
experience I had with Elba and Emelin and our cast, I realize that in order for
us - as adult allies and as storytellers - to truly empower girls, we need to
involve them in how their experiences and their problems are told to the world.