Period: End of Sentence

100 Movies in 100 Days
Movie 22 Day 22
Period End Of Sentence

I am a big fan of any film that supports and empowers women. I had not heard of Period End of Sentence until it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. I was intrigued by a film that shows how something as simple as a girl's period, could stop her from going to school. This documentary explores India and the reality of menstruation and the stigma that goes along with it within the Indian culture.

Period End of Sentence is directed by Rayka Zehtabchi. This film takes a deeper look at the stigma surrounded by women and menstruation and the impact it can have on a young woman's education. Many girl in India are told that their period makes them dirty and unclean. They are unable to attend temple because they are dirty and God will not hear their prayers. Whenever these girls are asked about their period, they completely shut down. When the men are asked about it, they have no idea. They think menstruation is an illness women get. No wonder their is such a stigma to it.

In this village there is a machine and it helps employ women to make sanitary pads for other women and girls in the community. So many girls and women use dirty rags and they bleed through them so quickly. It is not sanitary and pressures girls to quit school because dealing with monthly menstruation is too embarrassing for then. These pads allow girls to stay in school and not have to worry about bleeding on themselves and the shame of being unclean. The pads are called Fly because it allows women to succeed and fly away to better things. Not gonna lie, that part made me cry. They are also employing women to make the pads and sell them to other women. This helps empower, not only the women manufacturing the pads but the girls that are buying them. They see these successful women who have no shame in what they are doing and the girls want to be like them.

The part of the film that moved me the most was a note at the credits. It said, "This machine and documentary were funded by students at Oakwood School in Los Angeles via bake sales, Kickstarter, and yogathons." I was completely moved to tears. To read American students wanted to reach out and help other women was wonderful. To see feminism on a global scale without stigma gives me so much hope. It's also brilliant that a documentary on menstruation won an Oscar! I'm so proud of the Academy for recognizing this important subject. We need to support and inform women on a global scale. No girl should stop going to school because she started her period.

Everyone should watch Period End of Sentence on Netflix. If the subject matter makes you uncomfortable, woman up and watch it anyways! It's an important topic and a brilliant documentary.