The unique challenges faced by girls across the world – and the bravery and the honesty with which they overcome them - are laid bare in a powerful new feature-length Australian documentary released this month.
I Am A Girl tells the moving stories of six girls aged from 16 to 19 in six different countries. Directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Rebecca Barry, the film follows Manu, Kimsey, Aziza, Habiba, Breani and Katie – each coming of age and ready to become something extraordinary telling their own stories in their own words.
From Afghanistan to Australia and Cambodia to Cameroon, the film documents how the girls come of age in the way their cultures dictate. There are remarkable and moving stories of resilience, bravery and humour.
“The cold hard reality is that if you are born a girl in this world today, in every measurable way you will be at a disadvantage. Yet in spite of these obstacles, girls have found extraordinary ways to persevere,” Jane Barry says.
Barry was inspired to make the film after surviving a tsunami in Samoa.
“With my brush with death came a realisation that perhaps for the first time, I did not have control, in those moments, over my life and its outcomes. I came to understand that for many girls in the world this is a feeling they live with every day.”
I Am a Girl opens on 28th August at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington in Sydney and on 5th September at Cinema Nova in Carlton in Melbourne. Tickets can be bought at the cinemas or from the I Am A Girl website.
See a trailer from the movie.
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