Period. End of Sentence wins Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject

The award for Best Documentary Short Subject goes to “Period. End of Sentence." The film is about menstruation and has just won at the #Oscars. "A period should end a sentence not a girl's education," that's the spirit of Period End of Sentence. Director Rayka Zehtabchi’s film focusses on the importance of why Period should not be the end of education for women. It is produced by Guneet Monga who is known to pick breakthrough ideas for her films.

Director Rayka Zehtabchi

The Iranian-American director Rayka Zehtabchi, won the award among other nominations in the category like Black Sheep, End Game, Lifeboat and A Night at the Garden. Through the film document, the director attempts to make menstruation a taboo-free issues and in its effort talks of the changes being made at the grass root level to make women more aware.

Short film is on how women are forced to drop out of school and cannot take part in normal activities due to menstruation shaming.

Period. End of Sentence portrays the stigma attached to menstruation, is based in Hapur, a small village outside Delhi. It was India’s official entry for the Academy award. It was a part of The Pad Project, an initiative by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton.

WE WON!!! To every girl on this earth... know that you are a goddess... if heavens are listening... look MA we put @sikhya on the map ❤️

— Guneet Monga (@guneetm) February 25, 2019

The short film captures the lives of women who face the stigma attached to menstruation and how they empower themselves. They live unhealthy and unhygienic lives where they have no access to sanitary pads. How women are forced to drop out of school and cannot take part in normal activities due to menstruation shaming. The women eventually end up empowering themselves after a sanitary pad vending machine is installed in the village. The women steadily learn how to manufacture and market their own pads.

Rayka Zehtabchi Film Poster

Who is Guneet Monga?

She is an Indian producer who is known to put herself behind innovative and unsung projects. She is a BAFTA nominee and the founder of Sikhya Entertainment a boutique film production house. She has produced notable films like Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1, Peddlers and The Lunchbox, Masaan & Zubaan.

She has reportedly said about the project, "This started seven years ago with raising money and donating one pad machine... then thought the team should make a movie for better awareness. Action India from India helped on ground in putting a machine. Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis captured all of this so beautifully with Mandakini Kakar producing for Sikhya Entertainment."