Aakriti Handa Moneycontrol News
Who would have thought that a 25-minute documentary shot in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district, based on the stigmas around menstruation, will make India proud and pin us back on the wall of Academy Award winners?
Well, Period. End of Sentence has achieved this feat by winning the Oscar for the Best Documentary in the Short Subject Category at the 91st Academy Awards on February 25.
Directed by 25-year-old Iranian-American director Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is a take on the taboos around menstruation that still exist in India’s hinterlands. It portrays the sheer obliviousness of the women about sanitary hygiene during menstruation, leading to their reluctance to use products such as sanitary pads.
Shot mostly on hand-held cameras and adopting a conversational narrative, the film juxtaposes people’s ignorance of the biological phenomena and the women’s drive to alleviate the stigma, even though hesitantly, when a pad-making machine is set up in the village.
A social experiment transcends into a revolution when women – who had never even heard of sanitary napkins – are not only apprised of its benefits but start producing them in bulk and selling them at minimal prices, salvaging the opportunity of self-empowerment. The women, now enthusiastic with a drive to enterprise, name their brand FLY.
In her acceptance speech, Zehtabchi said: “I’m not crying because I’m on my period or anything. I can’t believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar.” To film producer Guneet Monga, she said, “Guneet Monga – know that you have been empowering women all over the world to fight for menstrual equality.”
The documentary was produced by Indian producer Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment and crowdfunded by The Pad Project – an organisation established by an inspired group of students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton.
Monga, whose Sikhya Entertainment has also backed films like The Lunchbox, Masaan and Gangs of Wasseypur, tweeted:
Before the Oscars ceremony had begun, Monga had told IANS, “This started seven years ago with raising money and donating one pad machine... then thought the team should make a movie for better awareness. Action India from India helped on the ground in putting a machine. Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis captured all of this so beautifully with Mandakini Kakar producing for Sikhya Entertainment.”
“Today here we are! All the way to Oscars and have put this story on the map! Whatever may happen.... team Period. End of Sentence is already a winner,” she added.
Period. End of Sentence was among four other documentary shorts that were nominated in the category – Black Sheep, End Game, Lifeboat and A Night at the Garden.
Interestingly, India’s moment at the Oscars comes exactly a decade after A R Rahman and sound engineer Resul Pookutty won the Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.
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