Upcoming Screenings of Daughters of the Curved Moon

Film SouthAsia - Kathmandu, Nepal
Festival of South Asian Documentaries
Friday November 3rd, 11am
6pm- Miranda will take part the Panel Discussion on gender, sexuality, and rights.
Tix and Info: http://www.filmsouthasia.org/

Aldeburgh Documentary Festival - UK Premiere
Aldeburgh Cinema
Sunday November 5th, 11am
Sophie will be there for the festival and  for a Q&A after the film.
Tix and Info: Aldeburgh Cinema

Reel East Texas Film Festival - Kilgore, TX, USA
Texan Theater at 224 S. Kilgore Street
Saturday November 18th, 5:30pm block
Sophie will also be at the festival. 
Tix and Info : Reel East Texas Film

Official Selection at the Reel East Texas Film Festival

From the Longview Journal: Texas
by Jimmy Isaac

"Reel East Texas Film Festival is in essence an international event with seven foreign films. Among them is a documentary that Hale and Festival Operations Director James Draper agreed will be a cultural exploration for audiences.

According to the Toronto Film Festival, it's the documentary directed by Miranda Mortan Yap and Sophie Dia Pegrum that captures the journey of a young woman, Nisha, as she challenges the traditional ideologies in her community. The documentary shows the way women's lives are still bound by Hindu societal structure in Jumla, Nepal.

They watched the documentary at a film festival in San Antonio, and after talking with its filmmakers on a Saturday, they had the film submitted to their festival the following Monday."

"I consider myself to be someone well read and at least try to know as much as I can," Hale said, "and I didn't not know it was this bad. Women do everything in this village, and when I saw everything? They wake up in the morning before the sun comes up. They plow the fields, they tend the gardens, they tend the livestock, they do the household things. I am not kidding when I tell you that the men stand and watch — utterly bizarre. Come see the movie. I'm not exaggerating. I was absolutely shocked at just the utter acceptance of it." - Chip Hale

Daughters of the Curved Moon is screening Saturday 18th of November at 5:30pm
Texan Theater,
224 S. Kilgore Street
Kilgore TX USA

For tix and info go to: http://reeleasttexas.com/

U.K premiere for Daughters of the Curved Moon

We are proud to announce that we have been invited to screen Daughters of the Curved Moon atthe 23rd Annual Aldeburgh Doc Fest on Sunday 5th November at 11am.  We have been asked to present a Q&A at the event and will know in due course if either of us can get to the festival.

Updates on ticketing coming soon to the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival website. 

Winner Best Feature Documentary at U.S. Premiere at San Antonio Film Festival

Daughters of the Curved Moon won best feature documentary at San Antonio Film Festival.  It was an honor to be part of a festival that really supported a diverse range of filmmakers and projects.  And getting an award was a really wonderful surprise!  Thank you San Antonio film Festival and to all of the other inspiring filmmakers we met.  

Daughters of the Curved Moon : U.S. PREMIERE

San Antonio Film Festival, San Antonio TX – Saturday 5th August 2017

The long awaited U.S. premiere of Daughters of the Curved Moon, will be featured at the San Antonio Film Festival on Saturday 5th August at 3.30pm at the historic Tobin Center for Performing Arts in beautiful, downtown San Antonio, Texas.

International Premiere in Canada!

We are thrilled to announce Daughters of the Curved Moon's official selection for the Toronto Nepali Film Festival (TNFF).

We are screening at 18.30 on Saturday 1 April
at Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto,
2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto.

Premiere for Daughters of the Curved Moon

Daughters of the Curved Moon will premiere at the wonderful Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival in December 2016.  Watch this space for details.  

In this film, an extraordinary young woman takes us on a journey to her village in Western Nepal. Whilst sharing inspiring stories of women, she struggles to bring her community forward, challenging the traditional Hindu customs that bind the lives of her villagers. An intimate and beautiful portrait of a remote mountain culture.

Come and join us and celebrate the indomitable spirit of the women of Nepal.

Post-production - phase 3!

The end is in sight! Albeit still fairly distant.

Sophie spent a productive seven weeks here in Nepal working tirelessly to finally produce a rough cut. It is very exciting to see the film really coming into shape after many different phases and hands putting their mark on the story. This is the beginning of the end!

Update on our edit.

A lot has happened since we completed shooting.  Nepal has had some difficult times and though we have been working on compiling the story along with an editing team in Kathmandu, a lot of things have changed our approach.  We are finally moving into the ending phases of post production.  Sophie is coming out to Nepal in March to help polish the edit and get the film ready for sound mix and score and we hope to have the film out later in 2016. 

Shooting is Complete.

We have now completed shooting. We have been to Jumla four times in the last two years to document the lives of our friends and examine the changes in the community.
Now we have moved into the next phase: post-production. Working on the footage, reviewing, translating, and weaving together our story.

This community, these women and the lives they lead put in perspective what is truly important in life. This project has certainly been a humbling journey for us.

Production update: that's a wrap!

Shooting is finished!

It felt strange leaving Jumla this time as up until now, we have always been coming back for another shoot. Saying good-bye and not knowing when we might return made our departure more poignant.

After three years planning and four shoots spread out over nearly two years, we have completed shooting. We have hours and hours of amazing footage. The challenge that lies ahead now is condensing it into the appropriate number of minutes.

People keep asking me when the film will be ready, to which I have no answer but can only speculate. The translation alone takes such a long time - and there is a lot of dialogue. And then the editing process... how long is a piece of string?

All I can say right now is that I am so proud of all we have achieved so far. It's been an amazing journey and learning process. It has been made so special by the incredible team I've had the pleasure and honour of working with for the past two years.

If we can transfer even some of the magic of this experience into this film, I know that we will have something pretty special on our hands.

WE DID IT!

WE DID IT! We are thrilled to announce the successful completion of our campaign to raise funds for our final shooting dates in 2013.  Thank you to everyone for making this possible.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to all of our supporters around the world:

Michael Kastenbaum, Joel House, Nina Smith, Jean Arundale, Michelle Krusiec, Erica Apollo, Carine van Vugt, Sam Pow, Nori Takei, Caitlin Hunt Brody, Daniel James, Anneliese Golubic, Guinevere Tufnell, Lizl Peter, Diana Laurillard, Zoë Humphreys, Jessica Cassell, Jen Miller & Tano Sierra, Debbie Sutz, Joanna Marston, The Simas Family, Caroll Yap, Jennifer Grant, Fang-Fang Shi Inouye, Imogen Crosby, Emily Jefferson, John Sinclair Willis, Joel Shapiro, Malik Haughton, Tijen Inaltong, Erin Vanderkooy, Karen Emmanuel, Hannah Franz, Barrie & Marleen Peters, Nathan Collis, Wes Scarberry, TJ Mancini, Virginie Delamare, Faye Kennedy, Sam Fyfe, Jay Edwards, William Horton, Tryphena Lewis, Caroline Mellor, Jennifer Betti, Pani Ahmadi-Moore, Claire Ellis, Zoë Sanders, Christina Shewell, Peter Smith, Gera van Wijk, Thomas Fischer, Alex Laird, Persephone Pearl, Henry Binns, Helaine Blumenfeld, Jennifer Peters, Luc Humble, John Morton, Cecilia Noel, Hilary Paterson, Taya Seidler, Gisa Vatkey, Maureen Drdak, Tangrena Alexander, Seamus McNally, Nina Adriana, Christopher Moss, Kleo Kleanthous, Priscilla Prasad, Dani & Ted, Michael Bøcker-Larsen, Rachel Panasiuk, Harriet Moss, Dries Goeminne & Kristiina Kangas, Burcu Tung & Orkan Umurhan, Kimberly Arbuckle, Tomoko Ito, Alan Leslie & Victoria Bannon.

Why these stories need to be told

See for yourself.  Watch the video/production update with footage  and behind the scenes commentary from our first two shoots in Jumla.

The beginning...

It started with a moving experience. Then the desire to share the story. I went to the person I knew would be perfect to help me make it happen.

Sophie is not only a dear friend, but an accomplished film-maker. When she said she was on board for this project, I knew that we would be the perfect team.

Shakti Pictures was formed in October 2010.

The first thing we did was form a company and get the domain. Then Sophie (with me looking over her shoulder) built the website. We cut a promo from the footage that I had from my trip in the spring. I can't believe how fortunate it was that I was so snap-happy when I was in Jumla, not having any idea that the pictures would be put to use so quickly. Everything came together in such a way that I knew we were doing the right thing.

Now we are established as a business and are the process of applying for fiscal sponsorship and various grants. There is so much to do in the coming year and I can't wait!