Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sat 05 Oct only @ 17:30
Richard Robbins / USA / 2013 / 104 mins
Richard Robbins’ inspiring documentary is full of startling figures: the top cause of death in girls aged 15-19 is childbirth, 33 million fewer girls than boys go to primary school, 66 million girls do not go to school. Girl Rising tells the stories of nine extraordinary female children who are fighting to change those figures.
From Sokha, the Cambodian orphan who scavenges rubbish and tells how she realised that, as a girl, she too was just something to be discarded, to Yasmin, the Egyptian superhero, Girl Rising matches each girl (playing herself, except in two cases where appearing in the film was deemed too dangerous) with a writer from her home country to tell these deeply personal stories in a variety of styles. Worthiness aside, this is a visually stunning film and the narratives are often as gripping as any fiction.
As a piece of social change cinema, Girl Rising is a near-perfect film. Each girl is engaging, intelligent, insightful and inspiring. The stories are heartbreaking, but they are also a reminder of what a valuable commodity education is, and of the vast amount of untapped potential in the form of girls in the developing world. More than just empowering, Girl Rising should be compulsory viewing in every secondary school.
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