Both sides now: "The Sari Soldiers," playing Sausalito Film Festival, looks at female fighters on opposite sides of Nepal's 10-year-long civil war. (Photo courtesy Women Make Movies)
Julie Bridgham brings "The Sari Soldiers" to the inaugural Sausalito Film Festival
By Judy Stone
Unlikely as it may seem, the creative spark that eventually sent Julie Bridgham off to understand Nepal and make a film about it came when Bridgham was only 6 years old—from a young man who came to the U.S. for medical care and spoke at a Palo Alto alternative school she was attending.
"It was like a seed had been planted," said Bridgham, trying to explain the path that led to the remarkable documentary The Sari Soldiers, which she directed and produced with Ramyata Limbu starting in 2005, during the time of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. It was particularly dangerous for an American, a nationality viewed with suspicion by Maoists, but they gave Bridgham permission to shoot in their districts nonetheless.
The film focuses on the sari-clad women who fought on both sides of Nepal’s brutal 10-year civil war, which killed nearly 13,000 and displaced at least 100,000 by its end in 2006. It won Bridgham the 2008 Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and will be presented by the director at the Sausalito Film Festival at 2 p.m., Saturday, August 22.
It wasn’t easy for the filmmakers to find six women who represented a cross-section of the warring factions: Devi Sunuwar, a mother of disappeared daughter Maina Sunuwar; Mandira Sharma, a human rights attorney; Krishna Shahi, an anti-Maoist village leader; Ram Kumari Jhakri, a street protesting student activist and leader; Rajani K.C., a Royal Nepal Army officer; and Kamala Roka, alias Kranti, Maoist People’s Liberation Army Brigadier Commissar. Amnesty International is still seeking justice, truth and reparations for the torture and killing of the 14-year old Maina by the Nepalese armed forces in 2004.
Working with partner Limbu, the International Center for Transitional Justice, Amnesty International and many other organizations, Bridgham has organized an outreach campaign to show her film in as many Nepalese districts as possible to help end impunity for people responsible for torture, killing and disappearance of thousands.
In a way, her interest in Nepal may have taken root when Bridgham, then 20 and a student at the University of Colorado, went on a very popular trek, on the Annapurna circuit that traversed central Nepal, where she stayed for five weeks in 1993. "That trek was not a life-changing experience," she said, but quickly added, "Well, maybe it was." After college, she had begun working on a TV travel series and later was involved with production at Atlas Media on two series: Royal Families of the World and Exotic Islands.
Always eager to find work "that had a socially positive impact," in 2000, she contacted Barbara Butterworth, her former elementary school principal. She had become the director of the American International School in Nepal and her husband was executive director of the Fulbright Program in Nepal. Bridgham asked if she could do any documentary filming in Nepal. Through Butterworth, she became connected with the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation.
When she began filming there in 2004, Nepal had the largest reported number of disappearances in the world. She said here has been an "incredible" response since she began showing the documentary as a work-in-progress in Kathmandu in 2007. The finished work was first shown as a pilot project in six districts before going on to the 75 Nepalese districts. "Some people walked for four hours to see the film," she said. "People wanted the perpetrators of crimes to be held responsible. Many were inspired by the women in the film who became role models and men also acknowledged the role of women in making changes in the country."
When Americans see the documentary, she said she hoped viewers will realize that although they come from different cultures, "There is a universality in what drives people in general in their search for justice. And that search transcends difficulties and circumstances. I’ve learned so much from the Nepalese. It’s been inspiring to meet people who really want to make changes and have endured many challenges. They have definitely had a big impact on me."
The Sausalito Film Festival runs August 21-23 with a variety of films. For something totally different from another part of the world, San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle will present a very rare screening of The Role of Her Life, (2004) a study of the effect of fame on human relationships. The French film, directed by Francois Favrat, never received distribution here. It stars Agnes Jaoui as a tempestuous film star and Karin Viard as a magazine writer whose life turns upside down after the actress hires her as a personal assistant.
LaSalle will participate in a Q&A discussion following the film. Screening is at 4 p.m., Sunday, August 23 in the Callippe theater at Cavallo Point, 601 Murray Circle, Fort Baker, Sausalito.
More on the Sausalito Film Festival at its web site.
topics: bay area, directors, diy, documentary film, world cinema
08.20.2009