Mexico City.- Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has presented her first documentary with Apple TV+ at the Toronto Film Festival, an inspiring story about elderly South Korean divers that fits perfectly with her own activism, she said.
The Last Women of the Sea tells the story of the matriarchal Haenyeo community, whose members support themselves financially by fishing off the South Korean island of Jeju, using only diving suits, masks, fins, baskets and hooks.
The community, which was declared a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage site in 2016, has been around for centuries but is in danger, with many of the women now in their 60s, 70s or even 80s. “I was looking for stories of women… I wanted stories of their resilience. And when I heard about this project from (director) Sue, I thought, ‘This is exactly what I’m looking for,'” Yousafzai said in an interview alongside Korean-American director Sue Kim.
“When I see the stories of the haenyeo, I am inspired by the possibilities and capabilities that women have in their bodies, in their minds,” added the 27-year-old activist, who is one of the producers of the film.
In the 1960s, 30,000 Haenyeo women fished for everything from snails to octopus to support their families. Today, that number has dwindled to 4,000. The film shows the women talking about their difficult work, which involves holding their breath underwater for up to two minutes, and includes beautiful underwater footage of them at work. It also explores how they are trying to revive their culture through education and promoting their work on social media, and how they work together to prevent overfishing. “I met them when I was a child and I was very impressed by them because they are so confident and bold,” Kim, who is making her feature film debut, told AFP. “They are impressive. They are physically agile, skilled and strong, and they stand up for the environment and care about the next generation.” As a teenager, Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012 for her campaign for girls’ education rights. In 2014, at the age of 17, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The activist signed a deal with Apple TV+ in 2021 to promote content focused on women and girls and has created her own production company. “Storytelling has been part of my activism, and I believe we need to create platforms and opportunities for girls and women to reflect on the world as they see it,” said Yousafzai.
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