After winning the Truth to Power Best Documentary Award at Reel Asian and screening at 50+ international film festivals on four continents from London to Florida, Australia, and Mumbai, and a recent screening at the UN in Brussels, Toronto filmmaker Elisa Paloschi brings the award-winning documentary Driving With Selvi home to Toronto audiences for a series of screenings and discussions with the remarkable Selvi to Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.

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.

Paloschi saw the opportunity the film presented as a catalyst for change. During production a robust stakeholder engagement programme was undertaken by the director in India. Local and international experts were invited to participate in recommendations for how the film might be leveraged by organizations addressing issues concerning education, equality and empowerment of women and girls.

Five Summits were held in the spring of 2014 in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, featuring the Consul General of Canada to India, Mission Director of USAID, and specialists from Thomson Reuters. These Summits were attended by over 40 organizations including the Ford Foundation, The Canadian High Commission, UN Women, Amnesty International, EY, and Ashoka India.

The filmmaker would like to acknowledge and thank Plan International’s Because I am a Girl initiative and Reel Asian who are Presenting Partners of the October 22 screening and Q+A at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.