Nirbhaya documentary to be premiered in New York today even as parents cry foul

Mangalore Today News Network

New York, Mar 09, 2015: Amidst huge uproar in India, the BBC documentary, depicting the aftermath of the brutal gang-rape and murder of `Nirbhaya` in 2012, will be premiered in the US on Monday.

The premiere will be attended by Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep and Frieda Pinto in a show of support for the film banned in India.

Meanwhile, parents of Nirbhaya have now said that the filmmaker did not show them the final version of the documentary and they had then refused to sign release papers.

The parents had earlier also objected to the documentary being aired as it not only makes the victim’s name public but also includes offensive remarks made by one of the rape convicts.

The US premier of the documentary ’Storyville: India’s daughter’ will take place at the Baruch College of the City University of New York here and will be presented by NGO Vital Voices Global Partnership and children’s development organisation - Plan International.

Streep and Pinto, who is Plan’s ’Because I am a Girl’ global ambassador, will be joined by the documentary’s director Leslee Udwin at the screening.

Udwin, a Plan ambassador, had said the December 2012 rape and the protests that followed was an "Arab spring for gender equality”.

"What impelled me to leave my husband and 2 children for 2 years while I made the film in India was not so much the horror of the rape as the inspiring and extraordinary eruption on the streets. A cry of ’enough is enough’.”

"Unprecedented numbers of ordinary men and women, day after day, faced a ferocious government crackdown that included tear gas, baton charges and water cannon. They were protesting for my rights and the rights of all women. That gives me optimism. I can’t recall another country having done that in my lifetime," Udwin had added.

The documentary, which was premiered in the UK on March 4, will be screened in countries across the globe -- including Switzerland, Norway and Canada -- to mark International Women’s Day.

 

(With PTI inputs)