GIRL POWER
For Davis Guggenheim, making “He Named Me Malala” hit very close to home. In town recently to promote the new film (opening Friday), the Oscar-winning documentarian (“An Inconvenient Truth”) explained that “I never make a film that doesn’t strike a very personal chord with me.… This time I constantly was thinking about my own daughters and how acquiring an education for them is such a natural thing— unlike for girls in so many places around the world.”
His documentary about Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala
Yousafzai’s life delves into the Taliban attack on the young Afghan woman and her amazing recovery from being shot for advocating the education of women. However, Guggenheim stressed that he really wanted “to show the more personal side of Malala’s life and her fascinating and very close relationship with her family— especially with her father.”
He also wanted to showcase Yousafzai’s passionate campaign to make education a universal thing around the world.
“Look at Syria or so many places in Africa, where girls are literally being denied the opportunity to partake in even the most basic educational experiences. Girls are actually being physically barred from attending school. They are refugees, just like Malala was a refugee. That is why she so completely connects with those girls— no matter where they live or what language they speak.”
The filmmaker, who is married to actress Elisabeth Shue, is very savvy about the way Hollywood works— knowing that documentaries always face an uphill battle against the massmarket movies that capture most of the screens at multiplexes across the country. “This time of year, with the big fall films coming out, is perhaps even more challenging for us. But I hope there is good word-of-mouth about [‘He Named Me Malala’].
“The message here is so important. It truly affects millions of girls around the globe.”