Sixteen Decisions (2000)

WE meet Selina 18, and mother of two children; Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank; and Gayle Ferraro, filmmaker. Their combined presence and voices articulate, interact, and develop a powerful and profound story, revealing a reality of past and present pain, uplifting goals, and the need for resources to move forward. Self-empowering structures such as the '16 decisions' demonstrate the challenge to traditional social roles and values, which undermine women's progress. Overarching anthropological questions are raised as they transition from a barter to a cash economy. While covering these important and meaningful topical issues, the real power of "Sixteen Decisions'" is in the depiction of Selina's everyday life. Selina, 18, is like most rural Bangladeshi housewives. She was a child laborer at 7 because her parents were too poor to feed her. Her parents arranged her marriage at 12 and sold their land for dowry, leaving themselves as beggars when her father lost his eyesight. Selina's family is not unique. As Dr. Yunus says in the film, "dowry is a killer in Bangladesh," as families sell their meager possessions to raise money for a dowry. Weaving in and out of the past, present and future we learn that with a $60 loan Selina has a rickshaw business-and hopes. As we experience Selina's everyday life, with its seemingly endless drudgery, she reflects on key issues such as dowry, birth control, education, and housing. Selina relates the path her life has taken what she hopes to learn and provide for her two young children. A counter point to Selina's life, which provides rich visual imagery, Dr. Yunus, founder and president of the 22-year old Grameen Bank, provides the objective reality of dealing with economically oppressive conditions found in developing countries. With the experience of loaning $2.3B to 10 million women, the banker acts as annotator for the film describing the need, evolution, impact and hope for women and society through the '16 decisions.' Producer, Gayle Ferraro, gives the audience the benefit of her experience with the women. She offers reflection and clarification to provide an engaging context for western viewers with a culture that can feel antiquated and obtuse in its harsh shrouds. The film shows the effects of a society that practically considers women as property and forbids them to speak or move their bodies in public. Using the courage the women show even leaving their houses, Ferraro builds the story to subtly suggest the viewer look more deeply at their own unexamined views and find meaningful challenges in their lives as well. With Selina and the women of Bangladesh as inspiration, it isn't hard to do.