Period End of Sentence. Won An Oscar 2019

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Apr 28, 2022

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Suman Oscar

India

Joined May 30, 2019

"Period.End of Sentence"won an Oscar for best documentary short.

The village.Just 115km (71 miles) from Delhi, Kathikhera village in Hapur district is a world far removed from the glitzy malls and high-rises of the Indian capital. Normally, it's a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Delhi, but construction work on the highway slows it down to four hours for us. And the final 7.5km drive to the village from Hapur town is a crawl, on narrow winding roads lined with open drains on both sides. The documentary is filmed in the farms and fields - and classrooms-of Kathikhera. Like in the rest of India, periods are a taboo topic; menstruating women are considered impure and barred from entering religious places and often excluded from social events too. suman says that previously, menstruation was not discussed - even among girls With so much stigma surrounding the issue,"It was not a topic that was discussed - even among girls," she says.But things began to change when Action India, a charity that works on reproductive health issues, set up a sanitary napkin manufacturing unit in Kathikhera.The women employees work from 9-5 six days a week A pack is priced at 20 rupees ($0.40; £0.30) In January 2017, Sneh was asked by Suman, a neighbour who works with Action India, if she wanted to work in the factory.A college graduate who dreams of working for the Delhi police one day, Sneh says she was excited. After all, there were "no other job opportunities" in the village."When I sought my mum's permission, she said, 'ask your father'. In our families, all important decisions are taken by men." She was too embarrassed to tell her father that she was going to be making pads so she told him that she would be making children's diapers."It was two months into the job that mum told him that I was making pads," she laughs. Much to her relief, he said, "That's alright, work is work.Today, the unit employs seven women, between 18 and 31 years of age. They work from 9-5, six days a week and are paid a monthly salary of 2,500 rupees ($35; £27). The centre produces 600 pads a day and they are sold under the brand name Fly Most women in the village used to use old clothes when they got their periods, now 70% use pad "The biggest problem we face is power cuts. Sometimes we have to come back at night to work when the power is back to meet the targets," suman says.This little business, run from two rooms in a my home, has helped improve feminine hygiene. Until it was set up most women in the village were using pieces of cloth cut out from old saris or bedsheets when they had their period, now 70% use pads It's also de-stigmatised menstruation and changed attitudes in a conservative society in ways that were unimaginable just a couple of years ago.suman says menstruation is now discussed openly among women. But, she says, it's not been an easy ride. "It was difficult at the start. Sushma Devi's husband does not want her to work there - but she won't give it up Initially, the women faced objections from some villagers who were suspicious about what was happening at the factory. And once the film crew arrived, there were questions about what they were doing. And some, like 31-year-old Sushma Devi, still have to fight daily battles at home. The mother-of-two says her husband agreed to let her work only after suman spoke to him. He also insisted that she finish all the housework before going to the factory."So I wake up at 05:00, clean the house, do the laundry, feed the buffaloes, make dung cakes which we use as cooking fuel, bathe, and make breakfast and lunch before I step out. In the evening, I cook dinner once I get back." But her husband is still unhappy with the arrangement. "He often gets angry with me. He says there's enough work at home, why do you have to go out to work? My neighbours too say it's not a good job, they also say the salary is low."Two of Sushma's neighbours had worked at the factory too, but left after a few months. Sushma has no intention of doing the same: "Even if my husband beats me up, I will not give up my job. I enjoy working here."Action India, a charity that works on reproductive health issues, set up the manufacturing unit two years ago In the documentary, Sushma is heard saying she'd spent some of her earnings to buy clothes for her younger brother. "If I'd known this was going to go to Oscars, I would have said something more intelligent," she says, laughing. For Sushma, suman and their fellow workers, the Oscar nomination has come as a big boost. The film, which is available on Netflix, is nominated in the Best Short Documentary category.As suman prepares to leave for Los Angeles, her neighbours are appreciative of the "prestige and fame" she has brought the village."No-one from Kathikhera has ever travelled abroad so I'll be the first one to do so," she says. "I'm now recognised and respected in the village, people say they are proud of me" suman says she had heard of Oscars and knew they were the biggest cinema awards in the world. But she had never watched a ceremony, and certainly didn't think that one day she would be on the red carpet "I never thought I would go to America. Even now I can't fully process what's happening. For me, the nomination itself is an award. It's a dream that I'm dreaming with my eyes open."

”Winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Short subject,

'Period. End of Sentence' The film is real life struggle am one of them who started this journey from A to Z struggle Suman is the one who faces each and every situation form man's world to all villagers ❓Suman gave her house for the pad project sanitary napkin making unit, Suman's family sifted to rented house

and fight begins still going on ‼️⁉️

Hailing from a conservative villagers, and milieu, it was never easy to set up a workshop of manufacture sanitary napkins for women to be used during their menstrual cycles, this issue is considered a taboo in the Indian society.

Suman is associated with a women’s welfare group “Mahila Sabla Sangh”, ngo

The Action India, approached Suman to educate women and girls about health and hygiene which included the menstruation cycle. Making sanitary napkins was also a part of the project.Taking up the project, Suman just give her home for sanitary napkin making unit Finally, it was installed in Suman's house. Thereafter, it was a Herculean task in a village to talk about such an issue in the conservative village like that, with a population of over 4500, in this village If some one want to study further have to spend Rs.100, and travel to 25/50 KM to the nearest city, but Suman did her best first she ask Sneha to join as a co-worker, she motivated her, she is suman's sister-in-law, a 23-year-old Sneha who helps manufacture the pads, Sneha who dreams of enlisting in Delhi Police so that her existence can mean more than just someone’s daughter, wife or mother. When she begins working at the pad-making factory, She was too embarrassed to tell her father that she was going to be making pads so she told him that she would be making children's diapers.Father believe that the machine makes baby nappies, not sanitary pads. Yet again, menstruation becomes cloaked in secrecy, shared by these women who are making the pads and earning a livelihood that supports their hopes and dreams.and then they both collected girls of village and started educating them about menstrual hygiene and how safe and healthy it is to use sanitary pads.It was not an easy task for them, adding that their hard work eventually yielded result as they managed to take along some women of the village with them. They did it boldly now the entire village is elated with their success, Undaunted, and determined, the two gathered the courage to raise the issue of menstruation cycle and use of sanitary napkins. And now, this short film has taken them to the world stage, something no one in their wildest dreams would have thought,Suman and Sneha, also expressed her happiness and said,"I am feeling very happy and proud. We come from a small village and we didn’t know about this earlier. We had worked very hard on this and so we are feeling very proud. We are very happy that the movie based on our struggling life of 20 years and our work has got an oscar award,

The names on the credits are all non-WORKERS Of THE GROUND This has hurt

us a lot, There is no benefits for activists who working on the ground, but “We do not want to play spoilsport. We are also cheering for a positive outcome. But it weighs on our minds that we are the one who started this journey. even tho I gave my house for for pad project. And am living in rented house with my husband and two children's and NGO actions India is paying me just ₹.2500.$42 USD per month no other benefits & there office is 100 km from here, me my husbands monthly income is just ₹.15000,$260 USD per month, my daughter is just pass out 12th class, going to college and son in 11th class, we are just hand to mouth, we worked towards the film being made. It was a collective effort, but we are not getting any recognition.

Oscar & half-truths ...

Period. End of Sentence, the Oscar award-winning documentary,

its factual inaccuracies and politics of appropriation cannot be dismissed

“Bamba foot gaya [the dam has burst]”, “cycle mein puncture”, “red light”, “laal dhaga [red thread]”, “date”, “MC”, “maheena [month]” and “period”—the women of Khati Khera laughed as they recalled these terms referring to menstruation. Most of these words and phrases are uttered in jest, as inside jokes. Across cultures, women use secret terms to convey that they are on their menstrual cycle. The shame and stigma, if any, is only in front of men. The situation is not very different in Khati Khera, a sleepy village in western Uttar Pradesh which recently shot to fame after a documentary on its sanitary napkin factory managed entirely by suman won an Oscar award,

The debate on the politics of representation was reignited this year when Period. End of Sentence won an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Subject category. Filmed in four villages across Hapur district in Uttar Pradesh, the film also brought into sharp focus menstruation, a taboo subject in many parts of the world. While accepting the award onstage alongside the producer Melissa Berton, an emotional Rayka Zehtabchi said: “I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar.” By awarding this the Academy sent out a message that it was time to provide recognition to a fresh film on women’s concerns. It was a stepping stone in the Academy’s claim to being a more inclusive institution, given that lack of diversity is something that it has often been accused of.

While accepting the award, Melissa Berton said, “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education,” a tag line from the film. It became a popular quote from the awards night after Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon highlighted it. The film-makers have repeatedly stated that girls across the world drop out of school because of their periods.

But when Frontline visited Khati Khera, it was evident that the girls who had dropped out of school, at least in that village, had done so for economic reasons. With the exception of one girl, the others who dropped out did so because the village school offered education only until Class 8, said Arshi, one of the seven girls who worked in the factory unit for biodegradable sanitary pads. The others are Nishu, Preeti, Rakhi, Rukhsana, Sneha and Sushma. Those who want to study further have to spend Rs.100 to travel to the nearest school in another village. While girls dropping out of school because of their menstruation might make for a dramatic plotline and a quotable quote, it was just one of the many cinematic liberties that the film-makers had taken. When this correspondent visited the factory unit set up in a suman home in Khati Khera, she was taken through the drill—the sorting of hard sheet, gel sheet, mixing, grinding, weighing, pressing, sanitising and packing done by the girls. Ever since the Oscar award, they have been overwhelmed by the constant media interest in their lives. Guddu, an electrician, proudly walked around, giving instructions to the girls on how to handle the machinery. After he left, the girls clarified that he had no role to play in the functioning of the unit. “He just likes to strut around like a patriarch. Earlier, these men would talk behind our backs and laugh at us,” said Preeti. Unlike earlier, now the men of the village visited the unit and took a keen interest in their work. Of the seven girls, Suman & Sneha, the main protagonist of the film, had accompanied the producers to the award ceremony in Los Angeles.

Suman, in whose house the unit has been set up, is the undisputed leader; she puts in more hours than anybody else. Owing to erratic power supply, the girls end up working odd hours, sometimes even at night, to meet the target of 600 pieces a day. The products are distributed under the brand name “Fly” by activists of Action India in 40 villages. “We want to take our product from 40 to 400 villages and scale up the employment from seven to 70 women,” said Suman.

This was the first time the women in the village had found gainful employment outside their homes and fields. While they continued to do housework and tend buffaloes, things are gradually changing on that front as well.The families of the women are waking up to their potential as they bring home Rs.2,500 every month. The villagers, too, are keen on appearing supportive of their work as they see the project expand. Especially after the Oscar, the attitude of the villagers has changed considerably towards the unit and the work they do.

Period. End of Sentence portrays the women as proactive agents wanting to change their destiny through sheer hard work and grit, not as victims. But focussing as it does excessively on shame and stigma, it does not record the cultural shift that has taken place in the villages after the setting up of the units. Despite the women’s obvious pride about the film, the feeling that it was an international film for global audiences could not be shaken off. With the exception of the executive producers Guneet Monga and Mandakini Kakar of Sikhya Entertainment, the names on the credits are all non-Indian. This has hurt the activists who worked on the ground.

One of the women told Frontline: “We do not want to play spoilsport. We are also cheering for a positive outcome. But it weighs on our minds that we, too, worked towards the film being made. It was a collective effort, but we are not getting any recognition. Even the local media are not writing about us.” Sam and Rayka Zehtabchi were the only two people who made day trips to Khati Khera for the shooting. Later, for the screening, around 20 U.S. students visited Khati Khera. For all the positivity garnered by the film, its politics of appropriation cannot be dismissed. Since it was made for an international audience, it is also feeding into the spectator’s gaze where the subject performs for an elite audience.

It is not just Western film-makers who run the risk of misrepresenting rural India. Journalists from urban India, too, fail to grasp the cultural nuances of life in the villages. A story on the lack of toilets in the factory unit of Khati Khera went viral. But girls of Khati Khera explained that it was a falsehood to the extent that owing to joint families living under the same roof, toilets are always built outside in the courtyard. For someone from the cities who is used to attached bathrooms inside the house, this might seem an anomaly, but it is not unusual for Gujjar households in villages. The villagers brushed aside these petty misrepresentations, with the larger picture in mind, and remained charmed by the attention that the Oscars had brought them

Period. End of Sentence, the Oscar award-winning documentary,

Oscar & half-truths ...this is only 25 % of our story. Thair is 75 % story that

has to be shown to the world which is very pain full ??

After got an oscar our life became more depressed and full of problem

We are very famous like star due to media but from inside we only know

our problem,

Before Oscar move has won twelve awards;

Girls just beginning to menstruate would miss school or drop out entirely from shame and disgrace, often having no prior clue that this natural biological phenomenon—neither an illness nor a disease—would become a regular, though badly understood feature of their lives. At that age, many men figured, girls were old enough to rape or marry. In many cultures, in a version of the “blood libel,” women were not permitted at any time to enter holy places or handle sacred books for fear of contaminating them, turning into a vast caste of untouchables. Ironically, in India, many of the temples which they could not enter were dedicated to female deities.

The film came to into being as a part of The Pad Project, started by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton. who raised the initial money for the machine, began a nonprofit called “The Pad Project,” and are listed as producers of the film. Their Oakwood School chapter of Girls Learn International (GLI), an offshoot of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Dedicating the award to her school, Berton said the project was born because her students in LA and people in India wanted to make a human rights difference. And the original award is with them only,

Since its release in April 2018, Period. End of Sentence. has been featured at numerous film festivals and has won 12. twelve awards; it also made it to the 91st Academy Awards shortlist in the Documentary Short Subject category

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6939026/awards?ref_=tt_awd

Awards Showing all wins and

Academy Awards, USA 2019

Winner Oscar Best Documentary Short Subject

AFI Fest 2018 Winner Audience Award Short Film

Winner Grand Jury Prize - Special Mention Best Documentary Short

Nominee Grand Jury Prize Live Action Short Film

Cleveland International Film Festival 2018

Winner Best Documentary Short Film

National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) 2018

Winner Audience Award Opening Night Films

Port Townsend Film Festival 2018