Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hot Docs: It's a Girl

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

It's a Girl (DVD 10633) exposes the expanding issue of "gendercide" in India and China. Because of cultural traditions and one-child policies in these countries, female children are often mistreated, killed, abused, or abandoned. It's a Girl reveals these injustices and who is committing them, documents the lives of girls whose lives have been destroyed by gendered culture, and asks how this can be stopped in the future.

Official description from the film's website:
In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”. Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members. The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.
Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl reveals the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women. The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

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