Inner West Roller Derby League charity screening: I Am A Girl

Update – I Am A Girl, which sold out its Sydney shows last year, is about to have ONE special charity screening:

Thursday 27 February

Doors 7pm for a 7.30 screening

Red Rattler Theatre, 6 Faversham Street Marrickville

Tickets $13 at the door

This is a special event organised by the Inner West Roller Derby League, with proceeds going to non-profit outreach organisation Twenty10.

“There is a group of people in the world today who are more persecuted than anyone else, but they are not political or religious activists. They are girls.  Being born a girl means you are more likely to be subjected to violence, disease, poverty and disadvantage than any other group on the planet.  As each girl moves closer to coming of age, I AM A GIRL, a feature length documentary, reveals what it means to grow up female in the 21st century.”

The new feature-length documentary I Am A Girl is about to screen, briefly, at the Chauvel cinema in Paddington. The film gives six teenage girls the space to speak of their lives.

I Am A Girl tells the moving stories of six girls aged from 16 to 19 in six different countries. The girls tell their own stories in their own words, and the result is a documentary that everyone should see. Aziza (Afghanistan), Breani (USA), Habiba (Cameroon), Katie (Australia), Kimsey (Cambodia) and Manu (Papua New Guinea) each show us something of an ordinary day in their very different parts of the world.

Australian filmmaker Rebecca Barry was inspired to make the film after surviving a tsunami in Samoa. The crisis caused her to stop and think about how a person might respond when the feeling of having no control over her life is not a momentary sensation, but the way things are every day. What she went on to find was some remarkable people who react to the, sometimes enormous, struggles of their lives with a continuing sense of ambition and hope. “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,” Barry says.

The I Am A Girl website has loads of information about the film and those involved in making it, and you can also purchase your tickets there.