I still remember the moment when I discovered the
story of one of the most inspiring women I’ve met, as a tiny blip in a local
newspaper. The article was about a protest organized by rural women against the
local authorities, in a remote town in North India. But, what caught my eye was
the description of their leader-“Sampat Pal Devi, an illiterate woman in North
India fights corruption and a divisive caste system with just sticks and pink
saris”. I knew I had to meet this woman who dares to question tradition in the
most conservative part of India. So I traveled to Uttar Pradesh in search of
Sampat Pal and I finally met her in Attara, a tiny village in the heart of the
largest state in India. There she was at a public rally, mobilizing women from
nearby villages to storm a local police station for not taking any action in a
dowry case. Her fearless and spirited personality moved me tremendously. I knew
that her story needed to be told, to give a strong voice to women who are still
afraid to fight against repressive customs in rural India. My dream as a
documentary filmmaker is to capture such extraordinary stories of ordinary
people in the world. The challenge was to execute this story in the field all
by myself. The conditions were harsh for shooting and traveling with Sampat was
not at all easy. But in the end it was all worth it, to watch someone as feisty
as Sampat Pal, who now leads more than 100,000 women in her fight against child
marriage, dowry deaths and sexual violence in the often ignored parts of India.
