Oscars 2019: India-set Period. End of Sentence makes history, wins Best Documentary Short Subject

[prasad1]

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Period. End of Sentence., a documentary that tackles the stigma around menstruation in rural India, has won the Best Documentary Short Subject at the 91st Academy Awards. The film has been co-produced by Guneet Monga and directed by 25-year-old Rayka Zehtabchi.

Monga wrote after the Oscar winner on Twitter, “WE WON!!! To every girl on this earth... know that you are a goddess... if heavens are listening... look MA we put @sikhya on the map.”

"I'm not crying because I'm on my period or anything. I can't believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar," Zehtabchi said in her acceptance speech. She also gave a nod to Monga.

"Guneet Monga - know that you have been empowering women all over the world fight for menstrual equality," she added. 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". "I share this award with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the entire team and cast. I share this with the teachers and students around the worlds - a period should end a sentence, not a girl's education," she said.

The film is about women in India fighting against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation and delving upon the work of real life ‘Pad Man’ Arunachalam Muruganathan. It is executive produced by Monga and is co-produced by Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, which has backed films like The Lunchbox and Masaan.

Directed by award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is created by The Pad Project, an organisation established by an inspired group of students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton.

The 26-minute film follows girls and women in Hapur in northern India and their experience with the installation of a pad machine in their village.

‘We won’: Indian producer Guneet Monga after Oscar for India-set Period

Produced by Guneet Monga and set in India, Period. End of Sentence has won the Best Documentary Short Subject at the 91st Academy Awards.

www.hindustantimes.com

 

[renuka]

Great! Great news.
Happy to hear this.

 

[prasad1]

From young men who think menstruation is a disease women suffer from and older men who wouldn’t acknowledge the subject in public to men who stare at women trying to buy sanitary pads at a neighbourhood store, Rayka Zehtabchi’s Period. End of Sentence expertly unmasks the real menstrual health challenge facing a majority of women in India. And the biggest challenge is Indian men and their inability and unwillingness to engage with the subject.

The film punctuates interviews with women in a Uttar Pradesh village with conversations with men from the same village, deftly mapping the root of the women’s troubles.

Period rightly asserts that men should unlearn their taboos before women can learn menstrual hygiene.

Oscar Winner ‘Period’ Shows How Indian Men Make Women’s Lives Difficult

The film shows how women often don't buy sanitary pads to avoid unwanted attention from men.

www.huffingtonpost.in

 

[renuka]

From young men who think menstruation is a disease women suffer from and older men who wouldn’t acknowledge the subject in public to men who stare at women trying to buy sanitary pads at a neighbourhood store, Rayka Zehtabchi’s Period. End of Sentence expertly unmasks the real menstrual health challenge facing a majority of women in India. And the biggest challenge is Indian men and their inability and unwillingness to engage with the subject.

The film punctuates interviews with women in a Uttar Pradesh village with conversations with men from the same village, deftly mapping the root of the women’s troubles.

Period rightly asserts that men should unlearn their taboos before women can learn menstrual hygiene.

Oscar Winner ‘Period’ Shows How Indian Men Make Women’s Lives Difficult

The film shows how women often don't buy sanitary pads to avoid unwanted attention from men.

www.huffingtonpost.in

Here where I stay its not a taboo.
Anyone male or female openly buy sanitary pads and no one stares even in rural places.

Only in the late 1970s I remember that people were still a bit shy to openly buy pads but nowadays no such thing.

 

[CHANDRU1849]

Here where I stay its not a taboo.
Anyone male or female openly buy sanitary pads and no one stares even in rural places.

Only in the late 1970s I remember that people were still a bit shy to openly buy pads but nowadays no such thing.

Ads are plenty in TV.

By the way, does menstruation a taboo in Hinduism only?

 

[renuka]

Ads are plenty in TV.

By the way, does menstruation a taboo in Hinduism only?

I am not talking of religion.
I am talking about human behavior.
Here men themselves buy sanitary pads for their wives and anyone can go buy pads and no one stares at anyone who is buying pads .

Menstruation isnt a taboo in any religion.
Religion just excuses women from ritual prayer during menses but most religions allows a woman to do all other work at home like cooking etc..
Some communities in India do not allow women to cook during menses..that isnt part of religion..its just a cultural practice.

Lets not confuse religion with cultural practices.

 

[tbs]

Ads are plenty in TV.

By the way, does menstruation a taboo in Hinduism only?

hi
thanks...

i have the same doubt....why so much hue cry in hinduism.?

 

[ashoktwinn]

I think there needs to be comprehensive menstrual education and especially the scientific facts. If these are bought out, I think one would support our ancient practices as regards menstruating women. Many women still wrongly believe that by using hygene pads all the aspects of medical vulnerabilities can be addressed.

 

[naithru]

dear Renuka ji, I remember in pharmacies they used to wrap sanitary pads in paper, and not now a days.