Saturday, March 23, 2013

Saturday Short

One girl with courage is a revolution.


Today's Saturday Short is the trailer for the documentary Girl Rising, directed by Richard Robbins. The film shows us how education can change the lives of girls the world over.

Girl Rising offers a series of vignettes: portraits of Sokha, "The Phoenix", an orphan left to forage in the dumps of Cambodia who becomes an accomplished dancer; Suma, "The Emancipated", who escapes servitude in Nepal to spread her message of hope and resilience and freedom; Ruksana, "The Dreamer", a "pavement dweller" in India whose father neglects his own needs to give his daughter a chance to realize her dreams; Azmera, "The Courageous", who says "No" when told she must marry at age 13; Senna of Peru, "The Warrior", who turns to poetry and is transformed; Yasmin, "The Defender", who shows us the meaning of resilience after being attacked violently in Egypt; Amina, "The Hopeful", a child bride in Afghanistan who refuses to be confined because of her gender; Luong, "The Writer", who tells in her series of memoirs the tragedy that befell her when she and so many of others like her were forced to flee the murderous Pol Pot regime in Cambodia; Wadley, "The Undaunted", just seven years old when Haiti suffers its devastating 2010 earthquake, leaving her homeless but determined to return to school; and Mariama, "The Catalyst", a teenager in war-ravaged Sierra Leone who becomes the first in her family to go to school and has her own radio show.

The girls' thematic and inspirational stories are told by nine writers, including Edwidge Danticat, Sooni Taraporevala, and Aminatta Forna (each paired writer is from the girl's native country), and narrated by nine actors, including Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, and Cate Blanchett.



Girl Rising on FaceBook and Twitter

Educate Girls | Change the World

10X10 Act Blog

No comments: