“One girl with courage is a revolution“
Women rights are a subject that I’m passionate about because while most people think that we are being treated and paid equally to men, we are not. On top of that, the media usually portrays women as a sexual object, limiting our chances in the workplace of proving that we are more than just a body, that we have also have dreams and ambitions. This issue is just one of the many regarding women in developed countries, but what about the women in developing countries? What about the girls who are born into a patriarchal society and from the exact moment of their birth a life has already been set out for them? Girls from all over the world are rising, and are saying no to what their society thinks and expects from them, instead, they are taking matters into their own hands, getting an education and becoming who they want to be, this is what Girl Rising is about.
Girl Rising is a narrative documentary directed by Richard E. Robbins, a film that shows 9 girls from developing countries, telling their own story and how they succeeded against all odds. Each of the girls acts out an adapted story from their own experience, written by an author from their country, the film is segmented into 9 different scenes, each one with an unique style, some where animated, some where more dramatic, giving the audience a diverse perspective. Besides the 9 stories, the film also counts with segments that have statistics of what it means to educate a girl and how the world can benefit from it narrated by Liam Neeson. The girls stories are narrated by Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Selena Gomez, Alicia Keys, Freida Pinto and Chloe Moretz.
Girl Rising portrays the journey of 9 smart, brave girls: Wadley the Undaunted, Yasmin the Defender, Suma the Emancipated, Azmera the Courageous, Ruksana the Dreamer, Amina the Hopeful, Senna the Warrior and Mariama the Catalyst.
While some of the actors or re-creations are not outstanding per se, they do manage to convey a message and make the audience realize of the hardships these girls have to go through just to go to school. Some girls were married off, some into forced labor, some were sent to care for their families while their brothers went to school, portraying the great disparity between the sexes and how most people assume that by educating a boy in the family is the right thing to do; they are so wrong. The scenes that featured the statistics, showed how much the world could benefit if all girls were educated were astounding: a girl that is educated has more chances of providing not only for herself but for her family, community and country a better life. Just to give you a number: 66 million girls are uneducated, the #1 death of girls or young women in the world between the ages of 15 and 19 is child bearing, also in many developing countries up to 75% cases of AIDS are girls or women. This film if anything it is an eye-opener to the power of knowledge.
While I expected a more documentary style movie, Girl Rising was more of a narrative and even then the message was clear: educate a girl, change the world. If anything it inspired me to spread the word about what other girls around the world are going through whose only wish is to learn.
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