the
girlworld project
Opportunity Costs: The Brief Life of Shanta
Opportunity Costs: The Brief Life of Shanta D. is an independent documentary halfway through production. It is the story of a teenage girl in Nepal, Shanta, and her family who take the risk of sending their daughter to the city for an education.
Despite her poverty and her low caste status, Shanta is fiercely determined to finish school and to become a doctor specializing in women's health. Her success seemed certain. But a year later, just a month from graduating, Shanta took her own life-leaving her family and village devastated and baffled by her death.
Thanks to the UN's Millennium Goals, and folks like Nicholas Kristof and Greg Mortenson, word is getting out that girls' education is the key to global development. However, when empowerment of girls precedes their society?s ability to support their new status, they become tragically vulnerable.
In 2009, suicide became the top cause of death for women in Nepal aged 14 to 49.
This film shows the nitty gritty of what it takes for a girl to succeed in a country like Nepal.
It will be completed in September of 2012.
©2010 by nonfiction media
