Period. End of Sentence, a film about women in India fighting against the deeply-rooted stigma of menstruation and delving upon the work of real life Pad Man Arunachalam Muruganatham, has made it to the Oscar shortlist in the Documentary Short Subject category.
The film is executive produced by Guneet Monga and is co-produced by Monga's Sikhya Entertainment, which has backed films like The Lunchbox and Masaan.
After the Oscar shortlist was announced here on Monday, Monga posted on Instagram: "Waking up to this shortlist! So proud and so exciting... I am so humbled to be a part of the producing team."
Directed by award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is created by The Pad Project, an organisation established by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher Melissa Berton.
The 26-minute film follows girls and women in northern India’s Hapur and their experience with the installation of a pad machine in their village.
According to hollywoodreporter.com, the film also delves upon Muruganantham's invention of an easy-to-operate machine that makes low-cost sanitary napkins using supplies that are readily available in India.
Muruganantham, whose story inspired the Bollywood feature film Pad Man, brings his machines to these small towns, helping train women to operate them and in turn sell the supplies at very affordable prices to other women in their area. The women retain the profits of their labour, effectively creating a sustainable women-run micro-business that protects both their health and their community's economic future.