''Ladies First'' is a 2017 Indian documentary on the life of

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

Deepika Kumari Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is an Indian professional archer. Currently ranked the World No. 2, she competes in the event of archery. She won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event. She also w ...

. Directed by Uraaz Bahl and Shaana Levy Bahl, it chronicles her journey through living in poverty in Jharkhand, to later getting enrolled in the Tata Archery Academy and representing India at several international tournaments. It won an award at the

London Independent Film Festival The London Independent Film Festival is a British film festival that takes place annually in April. It was founded by Erich Schultz and specialises in low-budget independent films. It offers a screenplay competition and distribution fair. Hist ...

, the Best Documentary award at the New York Film Awards and Best Inspirational Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards. It was screened at the 2017

Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF) is an annual film festival held in Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and larges ...

. It was shot over the course of three years leading up to the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. ''Ladies First'' was released on 8 March 2018 on the eve of

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. It was the first Netflix original documentary from India and released with subtitles in 28 different languages. The documentary was also screened for Magic Bus NGO.

Production

The husband wife duo of Uraaz Bahl and Shaana Levy Bahl read an article about

. Shaana said that "there was something about her struggle that struck a chord with Uraaz." They then decided to make a documentary on her. Kumari was initially not interested in it and said that "

he time He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

was so close to the Olympics and I was extremely busy and fully focused on my training." The crew travelled with her to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi where she and other athletes were given an official send-off by the prime minister for the 2016 Olympic Games. The shoot began a few months before the Olympics in August 2016 and was finished in seven months after the games ended.

Reception

John Stanley of

World Archery Federation The World Archery Federation (WA, also and formerly known as FITA from the French ''Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc'') is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 nationa ...

called it a "short, but beautifully-filmed piece which uses Rio as a frame to take the audience through Deepika’s remarkable career so far." Suhani Singh of ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

'' felt that the documentary focused "more on Kumari's origins story than demonstrating her impressive exploits on the field." A review carried by the IANS wrote: "We never get to know Deepika's inner feelings as she struggled against gender prejudices and her destiny of poverty. It's like getting vivid glimpses of landscape from a moving train."

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt6896078, Ladies First Indian documentary films 2017 films 2017 documentary films Documentary films about women in India Documentary films about sportspeople Netflix original documentary films