A Netflix documentary, Period. End of Sentence produced by Guneet Monga (known for The Lunch Box) won the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category at the 91st Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2019 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California. The film, set in India, is about women fighting against the taboos of menstruation, and talks about the work of real-life ‘Pad Man’ Dr. Arunachalam Muruganantham.
Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, realized the need for an inexpensive solution to the unsanitary and unhygienic practices followed during menstruation in rural India. He created and patented a machine which could manufacture low-cost sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercially manufactured pads.
Directed by 25-year-old Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is created by The Pad Project, an organization established by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton. The 26-minute film follows girls and women in Hapur, a village in northern India, and their experience with the installation of a pad-making machine in their village.
“Guneet Monga – know that you have been empowering women all over the world fight for menstrual equality,” Zehtabchi said. Berton dedicated the award to her school, saying “the project was born because her students in LA and people in India wanted to make a human rights difference.”
“I share this award with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the entire team and cast. I share this with the teachers and students around the worlds – a period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education,” Berton added.
