Pandora’s Box: Lifting the Lid on Menstruation (2019), Sundance Now
75 min documentary feature
For generations, women have been shamed, ostracized, and silenced, merely because they menstruate. This age-old discrimination is a central issue in the struggle for gender equality. The award-winning film, Pandora's Box: Lifting the Lid on Menstruation unmasks the global crisis of menstrual inequity and period poverty. From Maasai villages, to Mumbai and on to London, we meet young women who are forced to stay at home from school, or even drop out, because they don't have access to menstrual supplies. We meet women formerly incarcerated in the U.S. prison system as they share their struggles to menstruate safely while deprived of basic human hygiene. Former inmate and now a UN Ambassador of Peace, Topeka K. Sam asks, "Isn't the ability to menstruate with dignity a basic human right?"
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Special Jury Award
Whistler Film Festival World Documentary Award, Honourable Mention
Official Selection - Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Official Selection - NorthWest DocFest
Official Selection - United Nations Association Film Festival
Streamed on Sundance Now