Real People | Real Stories

I just read an interview with the Documentary Doctor, Fernanda Rossi about trailers and it made me feel really good about ours. The Girlworld trailer as it is now is 10 minutes of Shanta, our oldest (and I would say, most intense) subject.

In these 10 minutes we see her walking home from school, doing her homework, doing laundry and being pushed out of line while getting water, because of her “Untouchable” caste status. We get a big dose of how frustrating it is to live in a small space while trying to get ahead in school. There is also a hint at the enormous tension she has with her sister in law.

It ends with Shanta looking into the camera, and her voice over saying, “I am…hoping to become somebody.”

Chills. It gets me every time. I wonder if it does others. (And every time I ask myself: Do I get chills because I know her and know how true this is for her? Are conveying this meaning–and the chills–to other viewers?)

Something important to think about. This is the reason we believe we need an editing consultant—someone who wasn’t in the room with us filming, who can say, ‘that might have been a big moment in Nepal, but it doesn’t translate in your footage’.

Not that we want to hear that. Unless it’s true. Then it is Super valuable.

But all in all, we think the trailer works. It sets up the problem, introduces a main character and shows off our filmmaking style.

The thing is, this wasn’t always the trailer. I made a 3 minute trailer that I love. I actually think this gets folks* more excited about film, so I am not going to shelve it. What do you think?

*{by “folks” I mean regular people, civilians, as opposed to people who live and breathe documentaries, like funders and other documentarians}

Here’s the 3-minute version. What do you think?

Three: The GirlWorld Teaser from NonFiction Media on Vimeo.

Scott and I are working and reworking our Girlworld pitch. You know, what we tell people when they ask us what we’re doing.

We are getting better and better, the more we do it. One thing that is becoming very clear is that for funders we really need to explain how our documentary will bring change — will do capital G-Good for the world. Why give to a film, when you can give to an organization that’s already helping girls go to school? What does a documentary film do that an established NGO cannot?

Great questions! For a documentary aficionado, the answers are clear: Documentaries have the potential to bring an issue to the surface on a large scale. This means inspriring individuals to take action, which in turn empowers NGO’s to broaden their impact and pressures governments to put a cause at the top of their policy change list.

We are thinking of Girlworld as a huge PR campaign for how girl’s education can dramatically change the developing world for the better in a short of time.

Girlworld is a well-told, character driven story.

Girlworld is anthropology.

Girlworld is art.

Girlworld is a really beautiful infomercial for everyone working towards empowering women through education.

Girlworld is a tool to ignite change–at the personal, NGO, governmental and global levels.

Girlworld, the documentary series, is ALL THAT!

How do I know? Scott and I BELIEVE in the Power of Story.  A well-told story  allows one to enter a usually inaccessible world through a character or characters. A well-told story can essentially become an experience. And experience can bring you closer to understanding. Understanding leads to empowerment.

Girlworld, the documentary series, by following the lives girls in Nepal, will give its audience ownership over the issue of girls’ education and empower them to take action.

Girlworld will bring about

curiousity

knowledge

empathy

action

and CHANGE to Girl’s education: the best thing we can do in the world is educate the girls.

A popular, well-distributed documentary can make an issue common knowledge. Born into Brothels is a great example of this. The year it was released everyone was talking about sex slavery, and all over the world, not just in India where the movie was filmed. More money was given to NGO’s working on ending sex slavery. There was policy change at the international level. Born into Brothels made a BIG DIFFERENCE.

Since Born Into Brothels came out in 2005, the idea that documentary film can be used to actively increase social justice has gained some real teeth. There are outfits dedicated themselves to creating social impact campaigns for documentary films. The Fledgling Fund and Working Films are two incredible orgs on the cutting edge of getting documentary films out there to be seen and to do real Good.

The Fledgling Fund has put together a white paper on how documentary can make change — it is a good read. But if you don’t have time, you can watch the main points in this video.

Girlworld is on the radar of the Fledgling Fund and we have a phone meeting with Working Films next week. It feels so good to be doing this project with advocates like these believing in us (or, at least, getting ready to believe in us!).

This is time for Girlworld to be made. It is so exciting we can barely sleep at night.

Now it is time to babyproof the  house. Our 15 month old son just started walking. He is the other reason we can barely sleep at night.

We knew on the flight home from Nepal two years ago, that we would be back.  Scott and I are far from the first people to say, “Nepal changed my life.” It is practically cliche’, right? But man, it really did.

Well, I shouldn’t say it was Nepal, the country, that did a number on us (although, Nepal as a place  is truly amazing), it was the subjects of our documentary pieces, the Little Sisters and their families, that threw us for a loop. They have spark— they have strength— they are changing their world. They stuck with us in our hearts and heads. We got to get back to them, continue where we left off with their stories. It’s our job.

GirlWorld: The Best Thing We Can Do For the World is Educate the Girls is in FULL EFFECT! And therefore, our NonFiction Media production blog is back on too.

We won’t be leaving for South Asia until January 2011 to continue our filming. We are currently in pre-production/ fundraising mode and our minds our spinning a mile a minute with all the new stuff we are learning and making up as we go along .

Scott and I feel compelled to process our process. And if it is not on the internet, it might not actually exist. So, here it is —GirlWorld, the back story, in real time. We are laying it down and making it legit.

Some things to be ruminated upon here will be:

How documentary can change the world

Why Girls Education is the best thing we can do for the world

Current news about girls education and Nepali politics

The ups and downs of raising money for a documentary

Gear quandaries (of course)

Making a documentary while on diaper duty

Making a documentary with the man/woman you love most in the world

In preparation for our launch of our newly updated/redesigned wedding website, we wanted to also update the “Moving Pictures” page that’d gone a bit stale, over at our NonFiction Media homepage. 

Your comments are invited. 

Watch this space for the announcement of our new wedding site and blog’s rollout.

This is a 15-minute primer to the ins and outs of the Little Sisters Fund. It was made as a fundraiser piece, essentially–the idea being that it’ll inspire viewers to consider contributing to the Little Sisters Fund. 

For the best viewing experience, click on the little ‘expand’ symbol in the lower right corner of the viewing screen. This should give you a bigger window (or take you to the Vimeo page, where you can get a bigger viewing pane).

Watch, won’t you?

The Little Sisters Fund (raiser) from NonFiction Media on Vimeo.

This half hour documentary shows a day in the life of three Nepalese girls —Shanta, Pragya and Karuna. Their stories give context to the plight of women in Nepal and the invaluable role education plays in ending the cycle of female oppression. 
Three was funded by the nonprofit The Little Sisters Fund. For more information or to give a donation:
littlesistersfund.org.

Three: Impressions from the Struggle for Girls’ Education from NonFiction Media on Vimeo.

We’d love to hear your thoughts: How’d we do?