She Wants To Talk To You 2001
Distributed by Reviewed by Michelle Visser, Norlin Library, University of Colorado at Boulder
In a unique approach to documentary, this video uses recordings of 13-year old Nepali girls (who openly and candidly talk about freedom, gender, family, marriage, and God) as a framework to address the issues and experiences of a group of Nepali women who immigrated as young women to the United States. Filmed in both Nepal and the U.S., the film weaves statements by the young girls with letters and personal statements written and read by the women. These writings discuss the women’s personal experiences as well as many of the girls’ issues about what it is like to be Nepali and female.
Unfortunately, as a documentary, the film leaves the viewer unsatisfied. At the beginning of the film the recordings of the Nepali girls are used as narration to grainy, handheld camera scenes of Nepal but it is unclear who and what we are seeing and why. Chang never allows the viewer to associate the girls’ voices with particular individuals. We are given no context or background about the girls; the concerns of their disembodied voices cease to be the concerns of individuals and become the concerns of a group. The power of their dialog is diminished by this unmooring rather than strengthened by it. Their accents, though beautiful, can also be quite difficult to follow.
The women’s stories are more complete but because they are predominantly filmed reading in ‘neutral’ places such as a forest or garden, the viewer is still denied any kind of grounding in physical space or social context. What do these women’s homes or workplaces or families look like? With only rare exceptions do we get glimpses into anything beyond what the women themselves choose to say. There is surprisingly little footage of people in their normal spaces. Again there is the sense that their stories have been unmoored so that we are left only with their words and no context in which to interpret them. Their personal histories seem to have undergone little editing so that their presentations are at times overly dramatic or self-conscious. The effect is like stumbling upon sections of unknown persons’ diaries—interesting but not illuminating.
The symbolism employed throughout the film is forcefully suggestive and leaves little room for viewer interpretation. Open and closed gates, scenes with underwater-like movement and floating cards with words like Literature, Culture, Love, as well as drawings of chained and freed women, women with suitcases, and school girls with detached heads are among the images employed by the filmmaker. Had the drawings been done by one of the women or girls, the effect would have been quite different—an additional facet of the women’s experience rather than an editorial comment by the filmmaker.
In the end, She Wants To Talk To You views more like an art film than a documentary and leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. This film might be best appreciated by film students (this kind of documentary does have potential) or by those already quite familiar with Nepal and Nepali society. Recommended with reservation.