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“Americans have a great amount of interest in
Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi people,” Ferraro told the
South Asia Times during a telephonic conversation shortly
after the premiere. Since the release of the documentary, a
flood of e-mails with warm greetings and congratulations to
Ferraro has been continuously pouring in from Americans as
well as non-Americans living in countries as far as Australia
and New Zealand jamming her mailbox.
The film, featuring Selina’s life transformed
remarkably by the Grameen Bank of
Bangladesh, brought her and the bank’s micro credit
program into spotlight of both the old and new media
(Internet). The Boston Herald, a popular tabloid, and a
Cambridge weekly published articles on Gayle Ferraro’s
documentary with large-sized portraits of hers and Selina’s
– coinciding with its premiere. Among a handful of choices,
Ferraro selected Selina, initially a shy girl, to tell the
story of the struggle of Bangladeshi women.
“Paying a dowry to the family whose son married
your daughter sounds like an antiquated concept. But not in
Bangladesh. A $60 bank loan seems so small it’s laughable.
Not in Bangladesh. Sending your kids to elementary school is a
no-brainer. Not in Bangladesh,” writes a Herald reporter in
a story headlined “ Life-altering Decisions,” maintaining
the Western media’s long-running tradition of highlighting
the dark side of particularly the Third World nations around
the globe.
Ferraro’s film also brought the already-known
Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, founded by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a
teacher-turned-banker, into a greater focus across America and
worldwide. She first came to know about the bank in 1997
through an “out-of-state” friend, and instantly got
interested to see for herself its activities, particularly its
micro credit program helping thousands of Bangladeshi rural
women stand on their own feet. Coming to Bangladesh on a
three-week trip, she extended her stay to three months,
discovering a fascinating subject to shoot and an amazing
story to tell to the fellow Americans.
So, she came back home only to return to Bangladesh
fully prepared within a short time for a longer stay and begin the shooting of her
documentary film. The factor that influenced Ferraro most is a
quiet revolution among the rural women of Bangladesh, which
began with the micro credit-lending program of Muhammad Yunus.
The program under a set of guidelines called “Sixteen
Decisions” is the cornerstone of the revolution that is
giving women a sense of identity or belonging to themselves,
besides the power to live their own lives independently.
“ I was greatly interested in the economic and
political development of women. And myself being one of them,
I wanted to see what I could do in this regard,” Ferraro
said, commenting on her documentary “ Sixteen Decisions.”
“I think I have achieved my goal,” she added confidently.
Ferraro spent about three years starting 1997 to complete her
documentary. Between coming and going, she took some time off
to earn a master’s degree in public administration from
Harvard.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts will show “Sixteen
Decisions” throughout the fall this year. It will be
screened at New York Madison Garden at the labor Day weekend
when North American Bangladeshis will hold there their annual
grand conference. Ferraro has launched a web site the address
of which is 16decisions.com on the Internet for the publicity
of her documentary.
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