A Girl Can Touch the Sky, by Ravinol Chambers, is an immersive documentary that takes the audience deep into the culture and sometimes obtrusive gender roles across India. Chambers who was once a monk in the city of Vrindavan, India helps to shine a lot on the situations that are most pressing to many girls in the villages of India. As he and a crew travel down the west coast of India, they hope to raise awareness about the difficulties girls in the area have in accessing education. The documentary provides a manifold of interviews that discuss the education topic for girls from different points of view. Chambers shows a plethora of conflicting opinions that help the viewer become entrenched in the complex culture of India. We see disappointed fathers, hopeful girls, and educators speak on the matter at hand.

A Girl Can Touch the Sky is informative as well as heartwrenching. Chambers does a great job of storytelling while showing sensitive subjects tastefully. The film is a convincing watch that left me more knowledgeable on the subject and in awe and shock at the anecdotes shared by the people of India. A particularly powerful interview that stuck out to me was with the father of a girl named Rashmi, who escaped child marriage to continue her education. Though the father remarks that “the law is the law” and admits his fault for trying to marry his daughter off instead of continuing her education, he still believes that only his decision to marry her off and/or discontinue her education when she turns 18 is the valid one. Thus, it was apparent and saddening that the lack of autonomy for girls in India extends even further than I originally perceived. However, on the brighter side, this can also mean that progress is still being made no matter how slow it seems.

In juxtaposition to the previous interviewee, we hear from Ziauddin Yousafzai who is the father of activist Malala. Yousafzai explains to fathers about the importance of equality and not “clipping wings” so their daughters can “fly.” This interview proved to be an essential argument for the documentary and provided a great analogy about the hopes and dreams of their daughters. It is needed to have both of these viewpoints on display to give the audience an in-depth view. We hear two opinions from two fathers of girls and yet, they are vastly different but variety is a good thing. This interview style not only keeps the doc from remaining one-sided but, is one of the reasons why A Girl Can Touch the Sky is a masterfully crafted and insightful documentary.

Continuing, the documentary goes on to tell many more affecting stories and concludes that empowering women in India is also about empowering communities: A simple message but still a powerful one nonetheless. I never before considered how isolating being educated can be, especially when some Indian societies deem it a privilege and not a right. To summarize an interview with Shikha Uberoi, if a daughter were to become more educated than her father or brother it could be seen as a huge embarrassment to the family because of the reasons previously stated. These words mark just how far India has to progress by not just educating girls but educating everyone. Thus, A Girl Can Touch the Sky tells the story of many but shares a single message: by educating girls, we must also educate society. The storytelling of Ravinol Chambers throughout is enchantingly structured and endearing when it has to be. This documentary was a pleasure to watch, gain insight, and empathize with.

A Girl Can Touch the Sky screens at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, September 7. The film will be available online for 24 Hours on this day starting at 12 Midnight Eastern USA time. Tickets are available for purchase here.