NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT/IANS
“Period. End of Sentence.,” a Netflix film that follows women in rural India who fight menstrual stigma by making sanitary pads, won the Oscar for documentary short.
The 91st Academy Awards are underway in Los Angeles.
“A period should end a sentence—not a girl’s education!” Rayka Zehtabchi, director of the film, said in her acceptance speech.
“Started with a small dream in the English department room of @melissa_berton with her school girls of @oakwoodstories for empowering and educating other young girls across the world for better menstruation hygiene,” the film’s producer Guneet Monga had earlier posted on her Instagram account.
The film is about women in India fighting against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation and delving upon the work of real life ‘Pad Man’ Arunachalam Muruganathan. It is executive produced by Monga and is co-produced by Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, which has backed films like “The Lunchbox” and “Masaan”.
Directed by award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is created 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.
The 26-minute film follows girls and women in Hapur in northern India and their experience with the installation of a pad machine in their village.
Monga said: “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 ground in putting a machine. Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis captured all of this so beautifully with Mandakini Kakar producing for Sikhya Entertainment.”
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