Girls leading by example

Rebecca Barry, the producer and director of documentary I Am A Girl, little imagined the impact her film would have when it was released in Australia last year. It traces the lives of six girls between the ages of 17 and 19 in Cambodia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, the United States and Australia, and has resonated so much with audiences that it has developed its own momentum, says Barry.

Last month [October], the feature-length documentary had its US premiere as part of the annual UN-sponsored International Day of the Girl summit in New York City. Barry is working with partners in the US to develop accompanying educational guides, and she is planning screenings in the UK and Europe for 2015.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has used it with community groups as an educational tool, while a troupe of dance students choreographed a new work reflecting the documentary’s messages on discrimination and domestic violence.

Barry, who made the movie as part of her doctorate at the University of Technology, Sydney, says its greatest success is the way it has been embraced by mainstream education because “that’s where inter-generational change can happen”. At Q&A sessions after screenings, Barry has been approached by teachers who want to use it in their classrooms.

Barry has worked with the Documentary Australia Foundation to create the educational tools – including a DVD of the 88-minute movie, but also 10-minute vignettes of each girl’s story. Individual tales portray themes such as mental health, self-esteem or domestic violence. The DVD is augmented with five curriculum-specific study guides, free for teachers to download.

A licence to screen the movie can be purchased from the website: charities have used it to publicise issues or to raise money. The UTS Equity and Diversity unit, for example, screened it as part of a fundraiser to support two young Afghan women through university. In South Australia, a group called Soul Divas used the film to raise funds for a self-esteem workshop for girls from low socio-economic backgrounds.

See iamagirl.com.au for details, downloads or to organise a screening.