“HE NAMED ME MALALA” is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot while returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old (who turned 18 this past July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Since seeing the film, our teens have expressed an outpouring of positive feedback. Many programs discussed the film’s themes of youth education and social justice in their programs. The Arts Empowerment Project (Gage Park) explored the film by discussing what Malala would advocate for in Chicago today, and the Aztec Dance program (Little Village) personalized the experience by writing poems about their lives, using the format “My Name is ____.” You can view a sample of these poems in our flickr album.

Michael Lepek, instructor for the Digital Video Production program (Brighton Park), led a discussion in his program about the film’s technical structure and presentation of themes. “Our conversation quickly turned to a discussion on human rights, especially equal rights for girls in many countries. Many of the teens could not imagine a government or group taking away those rights with absolutely no recourse,” Lepek said. “The one word the teens expressed most was ‘inspiring.'”