Join New Westminster Arts Services, and Eyesfull Production for a screening of "Driving with Selvi", followed by a panel discussion featuring Lisa Gibson, Roberta Staley and Sandeep Johal
Date/Time: Nov 30 2017, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
New Westminster, Anvil Centre | Event calendarCost: Free
Screening: 6:00pm-7:15pm (Running time: 74 minutes)
Panel Discussion: 7:30pm-8:00pm
Limited seating available. To reserve your seat, please email kfiedrich@newwestcity.ca
Meet Selvi: a charming, strong and utterly courageous young woman who happens to be South India’s first female taxi driver. Selvi was forced to marry at a young age, only to find herself in a violent and abusive marriage. One day, in a desperate bid to escape, she fled to a highway with the intention of throwing herself under a bus—instead, she hailed the bus and started her remarkable journey. Over a 10-year journey, we see a remarkable transformation as Selvi finds her voice and defies all expectations: learning to drive, starting her own taxi company, leading educational seminars and much more.
In India’s patriarchal society, women are routinely marginalized and their rights violated. A story of courage and personal triumph, Driving with Selvi sheds light on child marriage and gender-based violence, and seeks to inspire viewers through one woman's ten-year journey of transformation and empowerment.
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DIRECTOR'S BIO – Elisa Paloschi
With more than 25years’experience in documentary production as a director, producer and cinematographer, Elisa Paloschi is president of Eyesfull, a Toronto-based independent production company dedicated to non-fiction documentaries that reflect the diversity of the human voice. Her first experimental short premiered at Int Film Fest Ouberhausent in 1992, and completed her first feature documentary, Embracing Voices, in 2012 (NXNE).
Paloschi’s latest feature, Driving With Selvi premiered at Raindance in 2015; since then it has appeared at festivals around the world, winning a number of awards and accolades (best doc, and New Mavericks awards at Atlanta, best doc Reel Asian, best director Yorkton etc.) and was selected as an IDFA Top 10 Audience Favourite.
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PANELISTS
Roberta Staley is a Vancouver-based, award-winning magazine editor and writer who has reported from the developing world, including post-conflict and conflict settings such as Afghanistan, El Salvador, Haiti, Colombia, Cambodia, Soweto in South Africa and Israel, covering gender, the environment, culture, education, medicine, HIV-AIDS and business. Staley is also a producer and director of documentaries. Her first film, Mightier Than The Sword, about female Afghan journalists and filmmakers and their impact on gender perceptions and gender equality in Afghanistan, has won numerous awards at film festivals and is distributed by Moving Images. Staley has a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University and is pursuing a PhD on gender equality in Islam. She is currently writing a biography for Greystone Books about Mozhdah Jamalzadah, an Afghan human rights activist, talk show host and singer.
Lisa Gibson, representing Driving with Selvi Documentary director Elisa Paloschi
Sandeep Johal is a Canadian-born South Asian artist living and working in Vancouver, Canada. She holds an honours level Diploma in Fine Arts from Langara College and an Education Degree from the University of British Columbia. Her work has been featured on Vancouver’s CTV Morning Live and Zee TV Canada, and the Spring Issue of Gray Magazine. Sandeep recently completed a design for the Front Street Mews Barrier in New Westminster, as well as a mural for this year’s Vancouver Mural Festival. She is preparing for her upcoming solo show, "Rest in Power", at the Gam Gallery in Vancouver, BC.
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Driving With Selvi - Awards + Accolades
Top Ten Audience Favourites, IDFA 2015
Best Documentary - Truth to Power Award, Reel Asian Film Festival 2015
New Mavericks Award and Best Documentary Award at Atlanta Film Festival 2015
Winner - Best Director Non Fiction, Yorkton Film Festival.
Grant awards from Bertha Britdoc Connect Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Fledging Foundation, Women in Film Finishing Fund, WIFT International, Canada Arts Council
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