Film/TV

Curtains up on The World Before Her at The Hudson Film Society DocFest


world b her
hfsby Joseph Rossi for Curtains Up

Hudson, Quebec is home to the Hudson Village Theatre, a charming venue housed within an old-fashioned train station.  It is here that the Hudson Film Society screens films for its members as well as for the public.  It sports a brand new lobby complete with a coffee and refreshment bar. There is a seating area and available cinema literature; perfect place for a pre-screening meet and greet or a post-viewing discussion.  The theatre itself is spacious and comfortable. It has great acoustics and boasts a brand new digital projector that provides a clean, shape image.

This past weekend the society showcased seven interesting and award winning documentaries as part of their March Docfest. I was lucky to attend a screening of Nisha Pahuja’s film The World Before Her, an informative and unbiased look into the different life paths of young women in present-day India.
The film follows 20 contestants of the Miss India Pageant as they attend a month long beauty boot camp. We focus on a select few who admit that winning the title is a way to a better life.  With the promise of movie deals, television time, cosmetic ads, etc; it’s a life that promotes their independence.  But good intentions and dreams aside, the director brings us backstage to see a beauty pageant’s dirty little secrets.  The regimes that these young women must undertake are shocking.  They are put trough botox injections and skin whitening procedures. They are made to dress in less then favorable attire, showing off midriffs, legs and more. This is a problem for Indian fundamentalists who see this as an assault on their male dominated way of life.  They protest to protect their culture and eschew the ideals of the rapidly growing western influence that is changing the minds of India’s young women.

The flip side to the contestant’s story takes us to another camp. The Durgha Vahini, a militant woman’s group that trains and teaches women to respect and adamantly follow Hinduism and their traditional patriarchal culture, runs this boot camp.  They are instructed in martial arts, gunplay, told to obey their family rules and customs and to oppose anyone who threatens their way of life whether it be Muslims, Christians, etc.  We focus mainly on a nationalist youth leader who prides herself on her ideals and is willing to kill and die for her traditionalist beliefs.  Pahuja’s brings us into her home where we meet her family.  We begin to fully understand how, through a father’s culturally accepted domineering attitude towards his daughter, can a child grow up with such a belief system.

This is a powerful and moving film, told with confidence and clarity by the Canadian born director. We’re invested in each of the subjects and their plights.  Like us, they hope and dream for a better life while trying to find and or preserve their own identities. The Film Society, headed by Clint Ward, prides itself on screening films that are thought provoking as well as entertaining.  Please seek them out and enjoy their hospitality.

For more info   http://www.hudsonfilmsociety.ca

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