RIGHTS OVER ROSES: ENDING CHILD, EARLY AND FORCED MARRIAGE IN PAKISTAN

directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Rukhshanda Naz is a dynamic human rights attorney, a long-time Global Fund for Women advisor, and a passionate advocate for ending early and forced marriage. In this film, she shares how growing up with a mother who was a child bride and an elder sister who was forced to marry early informed her own experiences and continues to fuel her activism and professional life. Rights Over Roses is part of a documentary film series called Fundamental directed by two-time Academy Award–winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Each of the five episodes shines a light on grassroots activists and community organizers who are disrupting the status quo to alter the course of history for women, girls, and marginalized people everywhere. (WP, Documentary, 15:06, 2020, Pakistan)
Supported by the Global Fund for Women. 

PORGAI (PRIDE)

directed by Anagha Unni

Porgai is a tribute to a group of Lambadi women in in Tamil Nadu’s Sittilingi Valley who have revived their community’s rich tradition of hand embroidery. Set in the beatific rustic landscape of South India, the film explores the essence of rural sustainability and its challenges, especially for women. Weaved together with insights from various experts on Indian crafts, the film showcases the plausibility of achieving a modest life of equity and happiness. (NAP, Documentary, 51:00, 2019, India)

ME 3.769

directed by Elaine del Valle

A young Latina looks forward to her maturing body but must soon cope with the inappropriate behaviour of someone she trusts. (TP, Drama, 9:00, 2018, USA)

THE PINK DAHLIA

directed by Cia Mellegers

A confident 16-year-old lazes around on a suburban summer day, tanning on her mother’s front lawn and taunting the local boys. A bike ride to the convenience store, the summer breeze in her hair, and a teasing flirtation with an androgynous teenage shop clerk are all par for the course. But the spell of an idyllic summer is broken when a confrontation with a strange man turns menacing. Although she escapes, she will never be the same. (CP, Drama, 7:51, 2018, Canada)

MISS YOU, DAD

directed by Neera Zaveri

After the death of her father, Ava processes the memories of her seemingly perfect childhood, struggling to come to terms with her parents’ role in destroying her innocence. (CP, Drama, 14:48, 2019, USA)

ESCALA

directed by Assem Yedgey

A teenage violinist is torn between tolerating her instructor’s inappropriate advances and winning the competition of a lifetime, which would change the future for her and her father. (CP, Drama, 15:40, 2018, USA)

GIRL FALLING

directed by Millie Rose Heywood

Sixteen-year-old Sarah is searching for true love, but following events at a local party her life slowly spins out of control. (CP, Drama, 26:05, 2018, Australia)

WHAT HAPPENED TO EVIE

directed by Kate Cheeseman

A schoolgirl’s splintered memories of a sexual assault reveal a reality that when revisited from an alternative perspective uncovers a very different truth. (OP, Drama, 10:37, 2018, UK)

ORÍKÌ

by Nk'iru Njoku

 When Otiti learns that she’s being sent away under false pretenses, she rebels in a way neither she nor her mother could ever have predicted. (NAP, Drama, 18:18, 2019, Nigeria)

LILY

directed by Alanna Rose

Seventeen-year-old Lily, a young Indigenous woman, gave birth to a baby girl in Sydney’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital. The baby was pronounced dead, but Lily believes the child has been given to a non-Indigenous family for adoption. A doctor convinces Lily’s parents to commit her to the Callan Park insane asylum, saying it’s the best place for a young woman with “melancholy.” Her parents reluctantly agree and place Lily in the doctor’s care, not knowing he has his own personal agenda. (WP, Experimental, 12:20, 2019, Australia)

Trust (Güven)

directed by Sefa Öztürk

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Ali and Meryem are an ordinary family on the face of it. Meryem has a child from a previous relationship with Ferit. When Ferit reappears, Ali puts his wife to a test of trust. While Meryem is caught between her sense of gratitude and the agony of love, Ali’s self-esteem begins to crumble. Ferit’s murder fans the flames of distrust between them and they become too suspicious of one another to talk. During the police questioning, they cling to one another once again. Complicity becomes the glue of trust between them. Now they are a proper family. (NAP, Drama, 99:00, 2018, Turkey)

MY STILL LIFE

directed by Tess Payne

A visual and poetic reflection on aging, infrastructure, and erasure. Heading into retirement – or “colours of nothingness” – Tess Payne playfully confronts life in Toronto’s inner city as a renter and a single woman. Presented as an ever-changing tableau, her day-to-day activities are framed within the relentless transformation of what she tenuously refers to as home into “real estate.” (CP, Animation, 10:15, 2019, Canada)

PAUSE

directed by Tonia Mishiali

Elpida has reached a critical juncture in her life – unquenchable desires, the longing for love, her own body, even time itself all seem to conspire against the routine existence she had been enduring as wife and mother. As her tenuous hold on reality begins to crumble, Elpida finds herself uncertain as to what is real and what is her imagination, leading her to the brink of catastrophe. Can a “pause” mark a new beginning for her? (CP, Drama, 96:00, 2018, Greece).

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