GIZ Project Her&Now releases their four award-winning short films on YouTube

2024-04-25 04:01:37 Blogging & Social Media

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New Delhi, 15th November, 2022 ? GIZ India's Project Her&Now has been working to create a more enabling environment for women-led businesses in India since 2018. As an effort to change mindsets around women entrepreneurship the project had commissioned four short films, which have now been released online. During the past two years, the films have been screened 77 times across small cities in the North Eastern Region, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi NCR as well as online, with the goal to start open conversations with the audience around the role of women in the economy and society.

Talking about the short films' online release and their contribution to a mindset change, Julia Karst, Project Head of Her&Now, said, "Film is a powerful medium that both reflects and shapes dominant discourses and perceptions about gender norms in a society. We hope the short films and the discussions around them will contribute to a positive mindset change and increase the visibility of the entrepreneurial spirit of women in India".

The four Her&Now short films on women's entrepreneurial journeys comprise 'B. Selvi & Daughters' (25min, fiction, Tamil) directed by Drishya and starring Gayathrie Shankar and Kalairani, 'Kashmakash - The Dilemma' (20min, fiction, Hindi) directed by Manav Rath and with Dipannita Sharma-Atwal in the leading role, 'Pahal - An Initiative' (12min, animation, Hindi) directed by Swarup Deb, Anuj Kumar and Avinash Medhe, and 'Ritu Goes Online' (16min, documentary, Hindi) directed by Vrinda Samartha.

Speaking about her film's role in the Her&Now film campaign, Drishya, Director of the film B. Selvi & Daughters said, "I hope that the film starts a real conversation at many levels about women's motivations and challenges, specifically with regard to their careers and entrepreneurship. To that effect, the great majority of the film's crew was female, hopefully, a step towards the long overdue shift to the female gaze".

"Through our film, I hope society sees value in the financial benefits and change in mindset women entrepreneurs can bring to their homes and societies. I also hope it inspires more families to come forward and support them. I hope to see many more women entrepreneurs out there breaking the ceiling and creating their own unique success story. " said Vrinda Samartha, Director of the film Ritu Goes Online.

Apart from their crucial role in the Her&Now campaign, the short films were also showcased at 17 national and international film festivals ? among which the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, New York Indian Film Festival, Arthouse Asia Film Festival ? and garnered 5 awards as well as prestigious nominations at the Critics Choice Awards!

All four short films can be watched on the HumaraMovie YouTube channel as well as on the MovieSaints film platform for free.

About GIZ Her&Now

Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project 'Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women' on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, to support aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India.

Since its inception in 2018, the project has been creating an enabling environment for women-led enterprises in India. It is working on it through the following touchpoints:
- Incubation and Acceleration support programmes for women entrepreneurs in tier II and tier III cities in the North Eastern Region, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. So far, these programmes have supported over 900 women entrepreneurs. In the North East and Rajasthan, the project has facilitated women entrepreneur-led networks like WE Manipur, WEN Nagaland, AWARE in Rajasthan and MeraBizNet in Uttar Pradesh
- WINcubate, a gender-sensitive entrepreneurship support training, (developed in collaboration with Dhriiti- The Courage Within) equips incubators to adopt women-centric incubation practices. 18 Atal Innovation Mission incubators and 12 Govt. of Gujarat incubators in the country have undertaken this training so far.
- The Film-and Media Campaign celebrates women entrepreneurs and their contribution to society and the economy. In order to stir a positive mindset change, the project has produced 4 award-winning short films being screened in over 40 cities of India.