Period. End of Sentence. (2018)

  This won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short, one of the categories I didn't complete this year.  It was better than End Game but still felt a little slight.  Of course, it's hard to do a deep dive in less than 30 minutes.

In Hapur, India, a new type of manufacturing machine gives poor women an opportunity to earn money outside of the home (many for the first time ever) while quietly challenging the stigma surrounding menstruation.

It doesn't seem like such a big deal here, but in parts of the world --even highly developed countries like India-- access to cheap sanitary napkins can make a world of difference.  These girls talk about how they are not allowed access to temples because the gods don't listen to menstruating women and how much of a hassle it is to make it to school when they have to go home to change three or four times a day.  The few men interviewed thought that menstruation was some kind of disease that mostly girls get, which means there are some dudes just waiting around wondering why they haven't gotten their periods yet.

The film doesn't have enough time to do more than skim the surface of this issue and give a brief, uplifting vignette at the end about how all the women were impacted for the better.  Maybe it can pull a White Helmets and get a full-length documentary next year with more follow-up.