Gabrielle Lucier – Because We Are Girls Review

Director: Baljit Sangra
2019
85 minutes
Sexual assault; Childhood; Punjabi-Canadian; Sexism; Family dynamics; Immigrant family; Trauma; Sisterhood

https://www.nfb.ca/film/because-we-are-girls/

Film review by Gabrielle Lucier

Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls follows the story of three sisters who seek justice at the Supreme Court of British Columbia regarding years of sexual assault by a male relative decades before. The sisters, Jeeti, Kira, and Salakshana share their personal experiences of growing up in a large Punjabi-Canadian family in Williams Lake, BC while providing broader insight into social norms and family dynamics in Punjabi-Canadian households and the experiences of Indo-Canadian families. Sangra’s intimate filmmaking style captures raw and personal moments amongst family and combines them with family photos and home videos, giving the viewer a sense of familiarity with these women and an emotional connection to their struggles. While remaining an “invisible” filmmaker, Sangra constructs a film with a strong message that engages with issues of gender relations and family relations in Punjabi households within a Canadian context. The film includes interviews and narration by the three sisters, allowing them the voice and agency to speak for themselves and share their stories after years of being silenced, as well as interviews with family members revealing their perspectives.

Throughout the film, photographs of the sisters in their childhood, images of young girls playing and close and personal shots of the sisters’ relationships with their daughters and nieces remind the viewer of these women’s motivations for coming forward. The sisters reveal that after decades of keeping their assault a secret, the youngest decides to speak up, with the support of her sisters, to prevent the same thing from happening to other girls. The story uncovers the bravery of these women to overcome the many obstacles keeping them from speaking out in order to protect others. Heartwarming videos of the sisters singing together, dancing, and spending time with their families also show the viewer their resilient spirits in the face of tragedy and trauma. Overall, the film displays the strength they gather through their sisterhood and shared experiences.

A major strength of the film is the women’s ability to tell the story of their childhood in a way that is both nostalgic and traumatic, both deeply personal and revealing of broader cultural implications. The film seamlessly weaves together accounts of the sisters and other family members with childhood photos, wedding videos, and family films, giving the viewer an intimate look into the childhoods and family lives of these women. The women also explain how their experiences were shaped by broader social norms within Punjabi families, and experiences that they deem common in Indo-Canadian households. Beyond the adversity faced by the sisters in their personal experiences of childhood sexual assault, they discuss experiences that they generalize to members of Indo-Canadian families, such as growing up with strict, intimidating, and disciplining parents, enduring racist bullying from peers, and navigating the difficulties of sexism and lower treatment as women.

A theme touched on in this documentary is the power of film in shaping the experiences, feelings, behaviours, and expectations of viewers. The sisters explain how Indian films made them feel beautiful and elegant like Bollywood actresses, but simultaneously shaped their understanding of women’s roles and relationships with men, in which men are to be obeyed and respected, and women are responsible for what happens to them. Because We Are Girls combines narration of the Sisters explaining their relationship to Bollywood films, with video

clips from Bollywood scenes, blurring the line between the personal with the universal, the mundane with the glamorous, the whimsical with the painful.

The film is also relevant to universal issues and larger social movements, for example, the Me Too movement (see the twitter hashtag here https://twitter.com/hashtag/metoo ), which has spanned more than the last decade and encourages women and people of all genders to join in solidarity and speak out against sexual assault on social media. This film reveals the difficulties and obstacles that sexual assault survivors face, and how a lack of support and understanding from family members can intensify these struggles. More broadly, this film builds on the work of feminists and Indian women’s rights activists who have spoken out and organized against sexual assault for many decades.

Overall, the film reveals the story of three women that is deeply personal and happened here in our province, while being relevant to global issues. Because We Are Girls gives these women the opportunity to share their story for themselves, explaining their own motivations, feelings, and experiences. The film focuses on the power and agency these women practice through their choices, without losing sight of the tremendous influence family and social norms can have on their lives.