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Sparkle (2)
Tonight the documentary Pink Saris, a film that illuminates the plight of “untouchable” girls in India, premieres on HBO . I urge you to watch this haunting and important film. Set amid the poverty of Northern India, the film profiles the indomitable Sampat Pal, the leader of the Gulapi Gang, a group fighting discrimination against women. “Gulapi” means pink, and the female members can be seen trailing along the dusty village roads in their trademark bright pink saris.
On Friday I had the privilege of interviewing Kim Longinotto, the acclaimed director of Pink Saris, from her home in London.
Mona: How did you come across Sampat Pal?
Kim: She’s becoming more and more famous. In the film you see the double side of it. On the one side it’s an important thing to protect her. She uses her fame to protect the girls. On the other side her fame is becoming a trap in itself. It’s distancing her from the people she’s closest to as she’s become more famous. She’s taken in by her whole mythology. You can see these two things played out in the film, almost like opposing tensions in who she is and what she is becoming.
There’s been a film about her by a young presenter [at Al Jazeera English] Rageh Omaar. He made Witness, a whole program about her. I think it’s very difficult because you only have a few days with her. What was interesting about his process is he went along with her whole mythology about herself. There are scenes where she’s teaching women to fight with sticks. He celebrates her. Where when I was there with her she didn’t do any stick fighting. She’s using her fame to get results.
There’s a point where she goes to the police station. They’re not looking very interested in what she’s saying, and she says, ‘Look, I’m in the papers today. You’ve got to take me seriously because otherwise I’ll talk to the press.’ She’s playing that game. That’s how she gets things done.
Mona: What made you want to do a film about her and the issue of untouchables and how it relates to the physical and sexual abuse of women in this part of India? Why as a filmmaker was it important to you?
Kim: I think there are two reasons. The first one, I like making films about people that are struggling. I don’t like to make films about victims. If I wanted to make a film about untouchables, I wanted it to be more a film where you see change. The girls come to her because they’ve reached some sort of crisis in their lives, and she’s their last chance. That links in with the fame. Really, she kind of publicizes their predicament. She brings things out into the open. That’s a protection for them. In front of all the villagers, one of the villagers says, ‘It’s shameful. You shouldn’t talk it.’
That’s the second reason. I think in the UK and also in the US we have these taboos that we can’t talk about and things we feel are somehow shameful. In my country you’re not supposed to tell people if you’ve been raped. ‘This has happened to me and I’ve survived it.’ Then it’s an empowering thing. It’s not something you should be ashamed of. The same with child abuse. I know you did have it in America with the Catholic priests. One priest I think abused 200 children. How does this happen? How do people manage to keep the secret so long? Sampat talks about everything. People lose their power, and that’s how change happens.
Mona: Is the caste system still widespread throughout India? I think many Americans have this idea of India as a rising, progressive democracy where prejudice against women is abating especially in the cities. What’s your perspective on the status of women in India?
Kim: There’s a wonderful book called The White Tiger about villages and the darkness in rural India. When I was in India I thought that was so apt. Most villages didn’t have electricity and were very cut off. There’s definitely a big difference between the cities and the villages, but the mindset of the villages ebbs into the cities. We have the honor killings, where a brother kills a sister if she’s having a boyfriend, which is this very old idea of girls carrying the honor of the
