The Indian skateboarder redefining what it means to be a girl

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To the burgeoning communities of women skaters in India, skateboarding has become more than a just sport. It represents empowerment and independence, a subversion of the country’s outdated gender norms. When director Sasha Rainbow traveled to India to document these female skateboarders for Wild Beasts’ “Alpha Female” music video in 2016, she met Suganthi, a single mother working to build a better future for her then seven-year-old daughter Kamali, a charismatic little girl in love with skateboarding.

在印度，对正在兴起的女滑板爱好者来说，滑板已经不仅仅是一项普通的运动了。它代表着赋权和独立，是对过时的国家性别规范的颠复。2016年，当导演 Sasha Rainbow 前往印度为“野兽乐队”（Wild Beasts）的《女首领》（Alpha Famale）音乐 MV 拍摄滑板女郎时，她遇到了 Suganthi——这位单身母亲，正试图为自己热爱滑板、充满朝气的 7 岁女儿 Kamali 打造一个更美好的未来。

Suganthi and her daughter Kamali are from Mahabalipuram, a small fishing village in southern India. It’s a place where people hold fast to their traditional ways and beliefs, especially when it comes to gender roles, and Kamali’s tomboyish hobby of skateboarding is often met with disapproving glances. But Suganthi, whose own life has been hemmed in by these notions of what a woman should or shouldn’t do, refuses to let her daughter fall into the same trap.

Rainbow’s new documentary, Kamali, captures their story, celebrating Suganthi’s heroism as a mother, Kamali’s passion for skateboarding, and how seemingly minor actions of a few individuals can inspire big changes in a community.

Suganthi 和她的女儿 Kamali 来自印度南部的一个小渔村 Mahabalipuram。这个地方的人们，坚持传统和信仰，特别是当涉及到性别角色时，Kamali 那种男孩子气的滑板爱好经常会遭到反对的目光。但是身为母亲的 Suganthi 觉得，自己的生活已经被这些“女人应该或不应该做什么的”观念束缚住了，所以她拒绝让女儿落入同样的境遇。

这部长达 23 分钟的纪录片《Kamali》，就向人们阐述了她们的故事、彰显了 Suganthi 身为人母的英勇气概、表现了 Kamali 对滑板的热衷，并展现了通过少数几个人的小作为就可以激发整片社区的大变化。

Kamali recently qualified for the 2020 Oscars, but Rainbow’s aspirations go beyond simply sharing Kamali and her mother’s story on the big screen. Money earned from the documentary will go toward Kamali’s future education and toward bringing more skateboards to the area to provide similar opportunities for other young girls in the region. To find out more, visit the film’s official site.

影片《Kamali》最近荣登 2020 年奥斯卡的候选名单，但导演 Sasha 的抱负，绝非仅仅是简单地在大屏幕上分享 Kamali 和她母亲的故事。这部纪录片的获利，将用于 Kamali 未来的教育，并将更多滑板引入该地区，为其他年轻女孩提供这样的机会。如想了解更多信息，可移步电影的官方网站。