Belmaya and I are beside ourselves with excitement! Not just one, but both of her short films, Educate Our Daughters and Rowing Against the Flow, have been selected for the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF) 2017. This is an amazing accolade for a first-time filmmaker, especially one who has had no advantages in life, and very little formal education. I’ll be flying over to film her as she presents her work at the festival, 14-18 December.
Educate Our Daughters is a personal short film, exploring the status of girls in Nepal and why they get fewer opportunities than boys. Interweaving interviews with feisty students at the Sublime school in Pokhara, her own past story, and the high hopes she has for her daughter, Belmaya shows that girls can be a powerful force.
Rowing Against the Flow offers a glimpse into the lives of three Dalit women who are rowing against the flow of expectation in Pokhara, as they compete with men to earn a living by rowing tourists on Phewa Lake.
Huge congratulations, Belmaya!
I AM BELMAYA 