Filmmaker Sumithra Prasanna visited a unique institution in India that relies on community members, rather than experts, to help solve local problems. She found when the community was given the authority to solve their own problems, confidence rose, gender relations improved and a ripple effect of positive changes occurred.

 

Have you ever heard voices in your head--hundreds of them, thousands of them--keeping you up in the middle of the night? Or fought hard to hush those voices for fear of losing your sanity? The world around you zips by in nanoseconds, and you know you need to be able to keep your bearings here to survive. Caught in a disorienting visual swirl, you ponder over the meaning of life... What is this madness for? This grueling reality of trying to do something? This trying to find a voice? This trying to make something out of an otherwise insipid life?