Rosendale Theatre will present the independent film Brave Girls, directed by Ellie Walton and Yashaswi Desai, on Friday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 24 at 2 p.m. The 71-minute documentary tells the story of three teenaged girls living in a small village in western India who get the chance to go to school and complete their tenth-grade exams.
By tradition, these girls would be married at 18 and move into their husbands’ family homes. While the girls study and devise plans for furthering their education, for work and independent income and for marrying for love, their families are proceeding with their prearranged marriages. Filmed over four years, Brave Girls explores urgent questions about the empowerment of women in the developing world.
A short animated video by local high school student Rhys Ellis will screen before the feature film. The short, The Importance of Educating Girls, is a Capstone project that Ellis made for their eighth-grade graduating thesis at High Meadow School in Stone Ridge. Ellis is a ninth-grader at Kingston High School.
Ellie Walton, one of the Brave Girls directors, and Tanisha Christie, one of its producers, along with Ellis will appear in person at the Friday, October 22 screening. Upstate Women in Film and Television (UPWIFT) will sponsor a pre-screening mixer in the Garden House patio area next to the Theatre. And the post-screening discussion will include Walton and Christie (feature film). Sunday’s matinée will feature both films with no discussion.
Information and ticket pre-purchase (and seating choice) are available at the Rosendale Theatre website at www.rosendaletheatre.org.
COVID policies remain in effect: proof of vaccination for age 12 and over, masking in Theatre unless seated and eating/drinking, distanced seating.
Join the family! 
