GUWAHATI: The Indo-German development cooperation project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women (Her&Now)’ with the local partner ‘Dhriiti – The Courage Within’ and other entrepreneurship stakeholders from the northeastern region celebrated the exclusive preview of four short films on entrepreneurial journeys of women.

The online event held on Tuesday marked the official start of the Her&Now film campaign in the North East Region, through which the project wants to initiate a positive debate around women entrepreneurship.

While physical screenings are not possible due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the moment, the project will provide digital options to watch the short films over the next months and will establish local screenings partnerships.

The live discussion focused on two of the films: ‘Ritu Goes Online’ a documentary directed by Vrinda Samartha (Believe Films) and an animation film ‘Pahal – An Initiative’ directed by Swarup Deb, Anuj Kumar and Avinash Medhe (Girgit Studios). The filmmakers were joined by the ‘Pahal’ voice actor Dipannita Sharma-Atwal.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to promote aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India.

Under the name of ‘Her&Now’, the project supports the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) in improving the overall framework conditions for women-led businesses through the implementation of incubation and acceleration support programs for women entrepreneurs.

 The project also includes a media campaign to tell the stories of successful women entrepreneurs and to foster a positive mindset change in society.