Even When I Fall
Special Screening
Kate McLarnon, Sky Neal / Feature Documentary / United Kingdom / 2017 / 88 min / Colour / DCP2K
In Nepali / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Social Issues, Children, Creative Documentary, Coming of Age
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
On an annual basis, around 100,000 women and children cross the border from Nepal to India – as slaves. This makes this one of the busiest human-trafficking routes in the world. Sold by their parents into Indian circuses, told they could return if they wished, girls like Saruswoti, Renu and Sheetal are put into glittery outfits, trained in acrobatics and forced to perform for audiences. Occasionally, rescue missions spring these youngsters from captivity and they are returned to their homeland. But faced with poverty, uneducated, and suffering the trauma that follows a life of forced labour, what sort of future do these youth have?
In a lovely twist of irony, it is the mad skills these girls were forced to develop as circus performers that they are able to leverage in their determination to reintegrate themselves into Nepali society. And so, Circus Kathmandu, the first circus in Nepal, is born. With its gradual success, the circus gives the girls a pride and confidence they might never have anticipated. But their story truly reaches its peak in the aftermath of the earthquakes that devastated Nepal in 2015, when they use their astonishing abilities to contribute to the rehabilitation of their nation.
About the Directors
Sky Neal is a documentary filmmaker and visual ethnographer with a Masters degree in Visual Anthropology. The founder and director of Satya Films, Neal strives to tell human stories in rich and creatively bold ways. She is passionate about human rights and has made several films that relate to human trafficking and child labour issues.
Kate McLarnon is an ethnographer and documentary filmmaker. Her work has been broadcast in the UK and was shortlisted for an IMTV Music Video Award. As a director of Postcode Films, Kate has worked with leading research and arts organisations in the UK, specialising in social policy innovation. Kate collaborates with anthropologists, journalists, artists, museums and charities, using film in innovative ways to express, investigate and create.
Credits
- Director
- Kate McLarnon, Sky Neal
- Producer
- Elhum Shakerifar
- Editor
- Alice Powell
- Music
- Jerry Lane
- Cinematographer
- Ben Marshall
- Sales Company
- C International Sales
- Production Company
- Postcode Films, Satya Films
- Other
- Sound Design: Dennis Wheatley