How an all female crew created a documentary about Gender and Education Equality in Pakistan.
One of our most memorable trips to Pakistan, was when we visited the country in 2015, and returned to our village where we had been working to inspire girls to continue their education. Some of the girls who had originally planned on quitting school when they reached grade five, had finally convinced their families to let them continue on to high school. It was a turning point in our activism journey because we realized that all the time we had spent whenever we visited Pakistan, to try and convince those girls to continue their education through workshops and speaking to their parents, was actually making a difference. Of course, it was the amazing girls themselves who ultimately created this change, but we were honored to be part of that journey. That’s one part of our story that many people know.
What they don’t know is that we also created a documentary in 2015, about our experiences traveling around Pakistan and working with the girls in our village. We spent two whole months filming the documentary, and months later editing it upon our return to Canada. That documentary was never shared, however, because just as we came close to finishing the editing process, we accidentally deleted all of our work! To say that we were devastated would be an understatement. We thought that we would never be able to make such an amazing documentary again, and we were heartbroken that all of our memories from our trip were gone.
After our initial sadness and despair, our parents told us to keep going, and that we could make the documentary again during our next trip to Pakistan. So we planned. And planned. Throughout high school, we took accelerated courses in the summer, met with our teachers and guidance counselor countless times, all to be able to finish high school a semester early and go to Pakistan again to make our film. Fast forward nearly four years, and we couldn’t believe that our plan actually worked. We were going to Pakistan again, to create a documentary telling the powerful stories of girls in our village, and the status of girls’ education around the country.
We were also much better equipped to be making our documentary this time around. Between our trips to Pakistan in 2015 and 2019, a lot had changed. We started a YouTube channel, got better equipment to be making our videos, and even got a chance to be a part of Disney’s “Dream Big, Princess” campaign to improve our filmmaking and storytelling skills. If you told our younger selves that we would be making a Disney movie one day, we would have never believed you. We still can’t believe that we got such a surreal opportunity to work with and learn from one of the greatest storytelling companies in the world. So yes, we were definitely more prepared.
The best part about our filmmaking process was that we had an all-female team. The two of us directed, produced, and coordinated our film’s interviews, but we were also joined by our aunt, our cousin, and our mom as we traveled around the country, met various changemakers, and spoke at conferences about the power of storytelling and digital activism. It was the most girl-powered trip to Pakistan that we had ever been on. There were moments where we would challenge ourselves, and go to places we had never thought we would be able to go on our own. One of these places was Monal, a restaurant near the top of one of the Margalla Hills in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city. It was International Women’s Day, and the two of us were going to be speaking at a conference in the city for the Pakistan Red Crescent Society. Before our speech, we wanted to do some sight-seeing in Islamabad, and Monal was at the top of our list. Our aunt was driving, and it was her first time driving through the steep, winding roads of the Margalla Hills to reach the restaurant, which was nearly 3,000 feet high.
It was quite an adventure considering her fear of heights, and when we finally arrived at the restaurant, we all agreed that it was worth it. It was such an amazing way to spend the morning of International Women’s Day - with an incredible view, and our aunt having conquered one of her biggest fears. If we don’t push ourselves to reach our goals, or items on our bucket lists (no matter how big or small), then we as women (or men for that matter), can miss out on so many experiences. Filmmaking is similar to this. How many women decide to give up on their film ideas just because it might seem too difficult to make the first step towards making a movie? And how many important stories are left unheard of in the process? Our whole film production journey consisted of moments like this, where we pushed ourselves, in ways big and small, to make this documentary, and be able to tell the story of girls’ education in Pakistan.
We also wanted to give a holistic picture of our country, which is so often misunderstood and misrepresented in the media. The only way we could do so was by going into spaces where we might not have felt the most comfortable, either in the journey to them or when we were actually present in them. We wanted to be able to tell the powerful stories of women and men breaking barriers and trying their hardest to give girls access to education that they need, to move the country forward. One such place was the Red Light District in Lahore, where an incredible woman, Zerka Tahir, had created a series of “Learning Hubs” or community uplifting projects that not only educated the children of dancers and musicians who worked in the area but also gave them alternative means of employment. Once we arrived in the Learning Hub, it was incredible to meet everyone who worked there, as well as the children. But getting to school was difficult. Our mom and the two of us went to the school together (our aunt and cousin had to return back to their home in America by then). We remember walking through the streets in the area, trying to find the location using Google Maps (which inconveniently stopped working), while also receiving odd looks from men and women who lived there. If we had gotten scared or frustrated then, we would have missed out on the amazing time we spent with the kids, and Zerka, finding out more about the Learning Hub and its impact once we did end up finding it. What was particularly inspiring, was how the entire community was working together to change the future of their children. One of the people who work at the Learning Hub is a tailor who used to stitch clothes for dance performances of the women in the Red Light District, and now, he stitches school uniforms for their children. The street where the Learning Hub itself is located is also being transformed into a kid-safe zone, and the colorful paint on all the buildings makes it a true hidden gem.
The process of making our film (both in the two months of production and the 9 months of post-production) was difficult, challenging, but also incredibly uplifting and inspiring. When we watch our film again, we are always reminded of the many years that it took to make this dream of ours come true. It wasn’t always easy, but even the hardships came with an immense amount of learning, and in the process of losing our first version of this film, we were able to come back and create an even better version. Both in the filmmaking process (with a girl-powered team) and in the subject of the film (which is the power of girls’ education), we were able to stay true to our values as feminists, and gender equality advocates. Most of all, we realized that we need more women telling their own stories, and being behind the camera, in front of the screen, or holding the pen.