Grand Prix Competition

HIGHWAY COURTESANS




Mystelle Brabbee

Country of production: USA, India
Year: 2004
Language: Hindi, English
Mins: 71

Production company: Flip Side Films
Producers: Mystelle Brabbée, Anura Idupuganti, Tom Donahue
Cinematography: Mystelle Brabbee, Craig McTurk, Todd Holmes, Purva Naresh
Editing: Todd Holmes
Sound: Tood Holmes

Source: Women Make Movies
Marta Sanchez
462 Broadway, Suite 500
New York, NY 10013, USA
Tel: 212-925-0606 x320
Fax: 212-925-2052
e-mail: msanchez@WMM.com


In central India, the network of villages known as the Bachara have been held together for centuries by a unique custom: the first-born daughters of nearly every family become roadside prostitutes known as the Khilawadi ("the ones that play"). Filming over nine years, director Mystelle Brabbee follows three articulate young women, Guddi, her sister Shana and their neighbor Sungita, as they serve a daily stream of roadside truckers to support their families. Their work forms the core of the local economy, but their contemporary ideas about freedom of choice, gender and self-determination slowly intrude on the Bachara way of life. Guddi, seen from the ages of 16 through 23, emerges as the film’s central character when she decides to leave the family business despite incurring the wrath of her father and brothers. Although achieving success as a teacher and community activist, she clearly struggles with tradition, family and love in hopes of realizing her dreams. Highway Courtesans resists easy moralizing and reveals the very real costs – financial, social and personal – for breaking with time-honored practice.


Mystelle Brabbee received her B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently the Artistic Director for the Nantucket Film Festival. She is currently working on her second documentary “Lotto” about lottery winners.

Filmography

Highway Courtesans (2004)

MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005 AT 1.30 PM. / GALLERY THEATRE
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2005 AT 8.00 PM. / CHOPIN THEATRE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2005 AT 9.00 PM. / GALLERY THEATRE.....BUY TICKETS!