CITY GIRLS

In this 28-minute documentary, we meet Umra and Kulsum originally from Banda, Uttar Pradesh, and now firmly finding their feet in New Delhi. Between theories of gender and migration, diktats of danger and safety, lie the lived experiences of young women in big cities, pursuing an adventure as big as the skies under which they build their one room homes in.

There is desire, pleasure, ambition in this film, but also strategies for a life of freedom, as Umra and Kulsum build on generations of adventuring women before them.

City Girls has been screened at International Documentary and Short Film Festival Kerala (IDSFFK, Competition),2021, Indian Institute for Human Settlement’s (IIHS) Urban Lens Film Festival 2021, Beyond Borders, South Asian Feminist Film Festival 2021, DIALOGUES: Calcutta International LGBTQIA Film & Video Festival 2021, Film Southasia (FSA) ’22, OBR Travelling Film Festival 2022, 3rd Women’s International Film Festival, Kerala, 2022. City Girls was longlisted in the Short Film category for the One World Media Awards.

Direction, Edit and Cinematography by Priya Thuvassery

Produced by The Third Eye, Nirantar Trust

Additional Cinematography by Nitasha Kapahi

Sound Edit and Mix by Neethu Mohandas

Vocals, Lyrics and Music by Vedi Sinha

The Third Eye is being written and developed by a team of educators, documentary filmmakers, storytellers; people with extensive experience of gathering narratives, oral histories and developing contextual pedagogies for the rural and the marginalised.