High school students helped produce Oscar-winning documentary
"Period. End of Sentence." won the prize for best documentary short subject.
The winner of this year's Oscar for best documentary short subject made waves because it's a film about menstruation. Some of its producers are young enough to still be in high school.
“Period. End of Sentence.” is a 26-minute-long Netflix documentary following women in rural India who make sanitary pads on a new machine. High school teacher Melissa Berton and her students produced the film through the group they started called the Pad Project, which aims to help women and girls in low-income countries gain independence by producing and selling pads.
Mason Maxam, a sophomore at the Oakwood School and an associate producer of the film, said she and other students worked on producing from the U.S. but went to India to screen the documentary with the women featured in it. She and her classmates involved in the project hosted some of the women from India in California for the Oscars.
The movie has “changed the conversation” around periods at her school as well as in India, Maxam told ABC News Live.
“This project is so important to me because it creates a partnership with me and girls in other countries, as well as slowly breaking down the stigma and taboo around menstruation, which is something so important,” Maxam said.
Watch the video above for the full segment.
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