She Wants to Talk to You

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She Wants to Talk to You

Director :

Anita Wen-Shin CHANG

Year :

2001

Color :

Color

Running Time :

29 min

16mm

Official site

Gender
Society
Human Interest

Bookmark

Synopsis

In October of 1999 in Kathmandu, Nepal, after befriending an Asian American filmmaker, three 13-year old Nepali girls, Monika Rasali, Sushma Sada and Vinita Shrestha, bravely take the unique opportunity to share their ideas about being girls in Nepal. The also speak candidly about marriage, friendship, love, loneliness, their dreams, and God. These recordings provide a complex and poignant framework for three Nepali women living in the U.S. to reflect on their own struggle, exile and quest for liberation.

She Wants to Talk to You is a result of these conversations and collaboration with these girls and women of diverse caste, the filmmaker’s own personal observations and reflections while living in Kathmandu, and research with UNICEF experts and academics in the field of women’s roles in developing nations. The film offers rare insight into the lives of girls in and women from a society steeped in patriarchy and tradition, and at the same time, suggests ways to improve the life quality and opportunities that they desire. While She Wants to Talk to You is a film that closely speaks to young girls and women (especially to young girls of color, who rarely see positive images of themselves), it also provokes introspection about the nature of happiness and oppression, human relations and intimacy.

Source: Anita Wen-Shin Chang's website
http://anitachangworks.com/?page_id=18

Director Statement

This film was important to me not only because of the subject matter, but because it was initiated by the three Nepali girls who I met while I was an artist-in-resident in Kathmandu. I had originally asked them if they wanted to make a film with me, and excitedly, they came up with the idea of making an all-girl musical, ala Hindi musicals. However, as they began writing the script, they realized the repercussions of their singing and dancing on film. “Good girls” just don’t do that in Nepal. This realization lead to passionate discussions of what it was like to be girls in Nepal and, finally to the girls’ expressing their desire to make their ideas known. For once, they felt their feelings and experiences were valid and worth being told. Making this film was the promise I made to them.

Source: Anita Wen-Shin Chang's website
http://anitachangworks.com/?page_id=18