Women Make Movies (WMM) announces its acquisition of internationally acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto’s PINK SARIS, a documentary about Northern India’s Gulabi Gang. The film will have its world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, which Longinotto will attend.
“A girl’s life is cruel…A woman’s life is very cruel,” notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the center of PINK SARIS. Sampat should know – like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which made her work hard and beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep. Like Rekha, a fourteen year old Untouchable, who is three months pregnant and homeless – unable to marry her unborn child’s father because of her low caste. Fifteen year old Renu’s husband from an arranged marriage has abandoned her, her father-in-law has been raping her and she’s threatening to throw herself under a train. Both young women, frightened and desperate, reach out for their only hope: Sampat Pal and her Gulabi Gang, Northern India’s women vigilantes in pink. PINK SARIS i s an unflinching and often amusing look at these unlikely political activists and their charismatic leader; in extraordinary scenes, we watch Sampat launch herself into the center of family dramas, witnessed by scores of spectators, convinced her mediation is the best path for these vulnerable girls. Her partner Babuji, who has watched Sampat change over the years, is less certain….
Director Kim Longinotto is known for making films which highlight women fighting oppression or discrimination, such as ROUGH AUNTIES (winner of the Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize in Documentary and recently premiered on HBO), DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE, and SISTERS IN LAW (a Peabody Award winner). As with PINK SARIS, Longinotto is able to find the humor and humanity in situations and characters that might otherwise be seen as tragic.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has become the launching pad for the best of international, Hollywood and Canadian cinema, and is recognized as the most important film festival after Cannes. Kim Longinotto’s films GAEA GIRLS and SISTERS IN LAW have made previous appearances at TIFF.