MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
15 February 2013
Beauty, guns and freedom
A review of The World Before Her screening at BBFF2013: 1 – 10 March 2013
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j21b1r13hbE
The 7th Byron Bay International Film Festival (BBFF2013) presented by The Owners Club at
Linnaeus is once again bringing thought-leading people and films from around the globe
together for a captivating, stimulating and entertaining dose of screen culture from
1-10 March 2013. This includes a fascinating inquiry into teenage love in I Am A Girl!
Words by Kyle Hedrick
Nisha Pahuja’s gripping and eye-opening documentary, The World Before Her, opens with
the statement, ‘In India, few avenues offer women financial stability or equality with men’.
Perhaps that’s what inspired Pahuja to delve deeply into the ones that do.
Winner of Best Documentary at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, The World Before Her will is a
must-see film of the festival showing Opening Night, Friday 1 March. It’s an immersive
exploration into the lives of a handful of women living in India right now that goes from one
polar extreme to the other. On one extreme, the film follows the twenty contestants in the
2011 Miss India beauty pageant, which offers the beauty industry as a means of achieving
empowerment for women. The other extreme is the Hindu revivalist movement, which runs
fundamentalist camps, such as the controversial militant Durga Vahini camps. While one
party may on the surface appear to be the antithesis of the other, both come with their
own costs and both strive for the same goal: individual freedom for all women of modern
India.
The World Before Her’s focus is on a battle that is going on in India today. This is a battle
between tradition and ‘modernity’, fundamentalism and capitalism, patriarchy and
equality, Hindus, Muslims and Christians, and how all this plays out on the bodies of women.
Today India is at a cultural crossroads due to the influx of western media, and women are
now demanding to be heard. In a country that annually aborts 750,000 girls in favour of
sons, women have good reason to stand up for their rights.
An important fact about this film is that it is the first time a camera crew has been allowed
into one of the Durga Vahini camps, which took two years of phone calls and flights back
and forth between Toronto and India for the director and her crew. Yet Pahuja’s film
refuses to judge its subjects, for while these camps have a dark undercurrent of militant
fundamentalism (in one scene girls are shown how to hold and shoot rifles), we also see
that those in the camps are real people with real concerns for their country’s future. After
all the Hindu fundamentalist movement started out and remains a means of providing
assistance and help to local Hindu families going though hard times.
Referring to the situation in India today, Pahuja has stated, “…the two key ideologies that
are governing present day reality are capitalism and fundamentalism.” Although those
from the fundamentalist movement abhor the Miss India pageants, these pageants have
also been able to provide opportunities for a better life for both the contestants and their
families.
This is an important documentary because within these women’s individual struggles, can
be glimpsed the struggles that have continued on throughout the history of humanity. We
all want to be free, empowered and respected, and when this is denied us, our struggle
begins. This film is important because it shows two entirely opposed methods, both of which
nevertheless strive for the same objective. Despite these women’s opposition to each
other’s methods, they are one and the same. The World Before Her is an important film in
the lineup for this year’s Byron Bay Film Festival because it is one that unites all women in
their struggle, and within their struggle can be seen history’s own, which unites all who
watch it.
Don’t miss The World Before Her at BBFF2013. Opening night tickets are on sale now. For
the festival program, trailers and other ticketing information please visit www.bbff.com.au
or find the festival on Facebook.
MEET THE FILMMAKERS
FILM MAKER, NISHA PAHUJA
Nisha Pahuja was born in India, and raised in Toronto from the age of three, yet the
content of her documentaries are fixated on her homeland. She started her career working
with Canadian filmmakers John Walker and Ali Kazimi, both of whom are known for
prioritizing the personal and the political in their works.
Her previous films include Bollywood Bound (2003) and Diamond Road (2007), the latter of
which is a three part television series, which follows the journey a diamond makes from the
mines of Sierra Leone all the way to workshops in India where the same diamonds are cut
and polished.
The World Before Her was inspired by the idea of filming the Miss India beauty pageant and
to use that as a kind of prism that would provide other discussion points of the role of
women in India today. “I thought it would be very interesting to see how those two
(capitalism and fundamentalism) were playing out in India” says Pahuja, “and how often
women are at the front line of this battle.”
Filming such difficult subjects required that Pahuja and her crew open up entirely with their
subjects and remain always available to listen. It was often important to let their guard
down, so to speak, to ensure that there was no power dynamic, nor any bizarre power
equation in the relationships with their subjects.
- ENDS -
For further media information or images, please contact:
Amanda Blennerhassett
Media & PR Manager
0449 153 885
media@bbff.com.au
Notes to editors:
About the Byron Bay International Film Festival
The 7th Byron Bay International Film Festival (BBFF2013) is an independent celebration of
the world’s best cutting-edge films that symbolise diversity, inclusion, authenticity and
evolution. Entertaining, inspiring and thought provoking, BBFF showcases and supports the
unique cultural melting pot that is Byron Bay and its avid film community, which is home to
the greatest concentration of film makers in Australia outside metropolitan areas.
About Festival Director, J’aimee Skippon-Volke
Born in Australia, J’aimee Skippon-Volke has a truly international perspective, spending
much of her upbringing travelling the globe. Her father worked in television and moved the
family from Australia to New Zealand and then to Thatcherite Britain, where the curtains
opened on J’aimee’s love of underground cinema. As a teen growing up in Covent
Garden in central London, she discovered the cinematic offerings at the ICA (Institute of
Contemporary Arts) a hub of raw talent for contemporary arthouse film. Her appetite for
film was fuelled further by the infamous Scala Cinema in Kings Cross and their all-night
movie marathons of cult classics.
J’aimee went on to work with Producers and Executive Producers in the TV industry and
after a stint in the USA, she settled in Byron Bay, Australia, to raise her family where she
became actively involved in the community. Starting out behind the scenes of BBFF, she
stepped up to the role of Festival Director and expanded it to international status to match
Byron Bay’s international community in 2007. With early adoption of social media, she has
led BBFF from strength to strength. Community values remain close to J’aimee’s heart and
she also works on the board of Screenworks, an organisation fostering a vibrant innovative
screen industry in the NSW Northern Rivers region, the Byron Visitors Centre and she is
currently President of the Byron Bay Community Centre.
About the Byron Bay location
With world class beaches only a short stroll from festival venues, and World Heritage
rainforests and national parks a short drive away, Byron Bay provides a glorious backdrop
for BBFF2013. A history of open-mindedness and creativity has firmly placed Byron Bay on
the world map as a destination for people seeking a positive change in lifestyle or
perspective. A progressive place where new technologies and practices are embraced,
and green awareness and eco living are promoted, Byron is a place where quality of life
sits high on the community’s list of priorities.
About The Owners Club at Linnaeus
This private beachfront estate with 300 acres of rainforest, coastal dunes and bushland is
bounded by state reserves and a marine national park, fronts a 1.5 kilometre strip of Seven
Mile Beach, and is a stone’s throw from Byron Bay. Shared between no more than 72
owners for their exclusive use throughout the year, the luxury property includes a 25m
infinity pool, tennis court, gymnasium, organic market garden and a clubhouse that houses
a commercial kitchen, dining rooms, library, wine cellar and intimate performance spaces.
For more information visit www.theownersclub.com.au