Girl Rising Unites with International Rescue Committee, Citi, HP and Amplifier to Launch Film Campaign to Raise Awareness and Support for Refugee Girls.
Tessa Thompson, David Oyelowo and poet Warsan Shire collaborate in Girl Rising’s newest film, Brave Girl Rising.
This International Women’s Day, Girl Rising, the nonprofit behind the global campaign for girls’ education and empowerment, debuts a new film, Brave Girl Rising. The 16-minute film, written by a refugee, performed by refugees, and made in collaboration with refugees in one of the largest camps in the world — is about how hope, love, and friendship can propel us beyond even the most bleak of circumstance. It tells the story of Nasro, a 17-year-old girl whose courageous drive to continue her education is inspired by the magical dreams of her mother and the sisterhood of her friends.
Brave Girl Rising will debut on https://girlrising.org/brave on International Women’s Day, Friday March 8.
The film was made in collaboration with The International Rescue Committee and with support from the project’s Founding Partner, Citi. To coincide with the film’s release, Girl Rising, IRC, and Citi are teaming up with HP and Amplifier Foundation to launch a major campaign that will include screening toolkits, curricula, take action guides and a street art initiative.
Warsan Shire, the UK’s former young poet laureate and social media phenom behind Beyoncé’s Lemonade, incorporates elements of magic realism and moving poetry in the screenplay. Tessa Thompson, who is the voice of the film, is not only Hollywood’s hottest new star (Creed 2, Westworld, Thor, the upcoming Men in Black reboot), but as one of the founding members of Time’s Up, she’s a powerful advocate for women in her own right.
Nasro arrived at Dadaab, one of the world’s largest refugee camps, when she was only 7 years old. Shire wrote the screenplay based on hours of conversation with Nasro—and the story weaves together true events in Nasro’s life and her dreams with the award-winning poet’s own experience as a refugee.
The social change agency Amplifier (the group that created the iconic Shepard Fairey Hope poster) also teamed up with Girl Rising to create a street art component of the campaign that will be shared widely on social media. The artist Ashley Lukachevsky will create artwork inspired by the film, and the poster will be distributed in limited editions in select cities around the world and online in advance of the film’s release.
This film also marks the expansion of Citi’s partnership with Girl Rising. Citi has been a supporter of Girl Rising’s US Educator Program, and is proud to be the Founding Partner of this project, the first in a new round of Girl Rising films and campaigns.
Girl Rising launched its global campaign in 2012 with the goal of changing how people—from parents to presidents—value and invest in girls and girls’ potential. Since then, GR has created media-driven campaigns and grassroots programming with on-the-ground partners in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is expanding into Kenya and Guatemala in 2019. Through creative storytelling in the form of films, PSAs, social media campaigns, radio programming, mobile games, and by teaming up with local organizations, GR is reaching girls, boys, parents, teachers, community and government leaders, sparking conversation and locally-led action in support of girls’ education and girls’ rights. The results include girls re-enrolling in school, parents deciding against early marriage, brothers standing up for their sisters, girls learning their rights and teachers creating gender-equal classrooms.
Girl Rising was named the #1 Most Dynamic Social Initiative (Forbes), “a social media marketing phenomenon” (The Daily Beast), and awarded the highest-to-date social impact score of 98/100 by Participant Media. They went on to launch the #62MillionGirls campaign with Michelle Obama, and in 2016 produced with Meryl Streep “We Will Rise,” a film about Obama’s mission to educate girls, now the most watched CNN Film of all time.
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