Half The Sky Sparknotes

Movie Analysis: Half the Sky

The documentary Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a broad examination of the day-to-day oppression that women face in the developing world. Created by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, and based off of their book of the same title, the movie tackles the “moral challenge of the century” by discussing several issues that specifically affect women, such as sex trafficking, poverty, female genital mutilation, and more. Each case strives to highlight the voices of women who are making impactful, despite-the-odds changes through the use of uniquely motivated non-governmental organizations. In this paper, the topics explored in Half the Sky will be analyzed, including gender-based

violence in Sierra Leone and education in Vietnam. In addition, the approach used by Kristof and WuDunn in highlighting these cases in the movie will be discussed in the broader context of intersectional feminism.
The first segment of the documentary examined gender-based violence in Sierra Leone, and specifically focused on the Rainbo Centre, a facility that treats and rehabilitates sexual assault victims. The tenacious Amie Kandeh, who also works for the International Rescue Committee, heads the Rainbo Centre and works to end violence against women and girls. It is through Kandeh that the viewers learn that during the Sierra Leone Civil War, women and girls were raped as means of generating terror among the masses as well as a sense of dominance and power among the male rapists. Even after the civil war ended in 2002, the rape of females continues, and the Rainbo Centre is seeing a trend in which younger and younger girls are increasingly being targeted. Kandeh states that on average, 100—200 women and girls are treated at the facility per month, and 26% of the victims treated are less that twelve years old. These horrific statistics indicate the widespread prevalence of violence against specifically young children that manifests in conflict-ridden areas. Sierra Leone is not the only nation that suffers from gender-based violence—women of the Democratic Republic of Congo also experienced rape as a weapon of war (as emphasized in the documentary A World of Conflict); Afghan women faced sexual, physical, and mental abuse during and after the Afghan Civil War and even now during the current U.S.-led War in Afghanistan; Pakistani women were brutally raped and murdered during the India-Pakistan partition of 1947; the list goes on and on. Perhaps the most effective aspect of Half the Sky is its ability to single out these issues and make them personal and relatable to a Western audience, while also displaying the universality of each case. This is especially true in the Sierra Leone segment of the documentary, in which a majority of the time is spent focusing on the fourteen-year-old girl named Fulumatu who was raped by a pastor. Fulumatu visits the Rainbo Centre and through the help of Kandeh and Kristof, she is able to expose the pastor of his crimes and get him thrown into jail (albeit very temporarily). The movie displays the extreme dysfunction of the Sierra Leonean justice system, which plays arguably the largest role in upholding the gender-based violence trend in the nation. The lack of an effective justice system to convict and punish rapists and abusers of their crimes results in a lack of accountability and collective moral guilt of the crimes. In this regard, the movie succeeded in delivering its message—that young girls and women everywhere are being targeted and severely debilitated due to gender-based violence, and without effective mechanisms such as a working justice system, these crimes will continue to take place thereby hindering society as a whole.
Another of Half the Sky that will be discussed in this paper was about girls’ education in Vietnam.

In the movie, it is stated that the half of the Vietnamese population lives below the poverty line, a staggering statistic that indicates a still developing economy in need of massive reforms. Education among the masses plays a significant role in improving the economy, and unfortunately, the female Vietnamese population is not as educated as the male population. This discrepancy is largely due to a culture that favors males over females. Bich Vu of the non-governmental organization Room to Read exemplifies the harmful patriarchal culture when she told the audience that in Vietnam it is like “one boy is one child, but ten girls are not equivalent to one child”. In this segment of Half the Sky, Room to Read is the major organization that is focused on; its purpose is to advocate for disadvantaged girls’ education by covering the fees and tuitions of students, providing supplies and uniforms to children, helping students with homework, and more. Three girls who are a part of the Room to Read program are shown in the movie, and each lives in strenuous circumstances due to poverty. Despite their difficult living conditions, they each work extremely hard towards receiving their education, as demonstrated by the girl named Duyen, who rides her bike for seventeen miles in order to get to school, or by Phung, who must raise her siblings while going to school because her mother died, or by Nhi, who is forced by her abusive father to sell lottery tickets on the streets in order to make an income. The stories of the extraordinary strides made by these resilient girls generate a sense of awe and gratitude among the audience, which makes Half the Sky all the more effective in bringing about awareness of female oppression. The unfortunate aspect about Half the Sky is that while it focuses on generating pathos, it does not discuss the economic pragmatism behind each situation. The

reason why education is so important to a nation’s wellbeing is because it is the number one factor in breaking the poverty cycle and has a plethora of positive outcomes. In the United Nations report entitled EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2002: Is the World on Track?, it is purported that empirically, education equates to empowerment, especially for women (33). When a person is educated, regardless of gender, he or she can invoke legal rights, participate in political change, and generally survive better and longer (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2002: Is the World on Track?, 33). Furthermore, having an educated population improves economic productivity in rural and urban self-employment, facilitates entrepreneurship, allows women to regulate their fertility through contraception, generally increases the age at which women get married, decreases infant and child mortality, and increases overall life expectancy (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2002: Is the World on Track?, 34-35). Therefore, the positive outcomes of educating a population are immeasurable and dire in the pursuit of economic prosperity. Overall, Half the Sky displayed poignant and meaningful stories of the three girls who overcame all obstacles in order to gain an education. This segment about girls’ education in Vietnam leaves the viewers with a resounding sense of hope and optimism, as well as a desire to inspire change.
Lastly, the feminist nature of the documentary must be discussed. On the surface, Half the Sky was very successful in bringing about attention to the plethora of patriarchal-induced problems that pervade humanity. It is an excellent introduction into feminism, as it provides accessible information about what plagues our societies and how these problems can be stopped. Furthermore, the documentary provides a strong call to action that urges the audience to start making impactful changes that benefit women as a whole (the primary call to action was to invest into the non-governmental organizations that participated in the documentary). Similarly, the transition scenes were extremely effective as they featured several powerful, diverse women in the non-profit, policy-making, and international development fields as supplements to the main case studies. Women such as then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Zainab Salbi of Women for Women International, and Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, provided insights into the detriment of women through statistics and personal anecdotes. Overall the documentary was successful because of its introductory nature, its calls to action, and its inclusion of both women of color and non-women of color into the greater narrative. On deeper introspection, however, a few problems arise. First, the inclusion of Nicolas Kristof in the case studies seemed a bit unnecessary or inappropriate. It seems as if he as a white, privileged male, is intruding in the spaces that these women created for themselves. Despite his good intentions, his presence brings about a sense of the western savior complex, as seen in the gender-based violence segment when he barged into the police station and ordered the officers to investigate room of the man who raped Fulumatu (Kristof’s efforts and the investigation quite literally did not result in anything). It can be argued that the film would have been more effective if Sheryl WuDunn was the one who traveled abroad and interviewed the women because as a woman of color she would have been able to connect to the interviewees on a deeper level than Kristof could. Furthermore, the use of Western female celebrities seemed trite and their comments seemed sometimes superficial. The most probable reason why the documentary incorporated these celebrities was to increase its marketability to Western audiences. This again brings about a sense of Western saviorism and implies that the creators of the movie intended to make a profit off the women they interviewed. Another problem with the use of celebrities was that often their voices overshadowed the voices of the women in the developing nations. Quite often, a scene would show a an underprivileged woman speaking about her situation, but then her voice would fade into the background and the scene would cut to a celebrity who would resume to speak on her behalf. Due to these problems, Half the Sky did not wholly succeed in providing an intersectional feminist point of view. Rather, the documentary was tinged with a Western savior complex that drew attention away from the greater context of the case studies.
In conclusion, the documentary Half the Sky is an important media project that made audiences all over the world aware of the need for change and intersectional feminism. Rape and sexual abuse, poverty, lack of education, and a lack of overall economic prosperity within a nation, are all deeply feminized issues that must be solved in the name of progress and equality. Despite its few problems, Half the Sky manages to expose the feminization of these problems and expertly crafts a story of love, optimism, and resilience. Perhaps the most poignant statement in the documentary was when Somaly Mam, who worked to end sex slavery in Cambodia stated, “the girls are me, we are the same. We have the same life”. This statement epitomizes the mission of the documentary, which is to understand and connect with the girls who do not have the same opportunities as people in the developed world. When this statement is internalized within the viewer, it brings about a sense of empathy and unity among humanity, which is desperately needed, especially in this time of hate and ignorance. Overall, Half the Sky was an enjoyable and inspiring documentary that every man and woman should watch in their lifetime.