A documentary short telling the story of rural Indian women who work together to make affordable menstrual products has received an Academy Award. The 26-minute film, Period. End of Sentence, was created in collaboration with award-winning director Rayka Zehtabchi, producer Guneet Monga and a hardworking group of students, parents and teachers from a small high school in Los Angeles. The film follows girls and women in Hapur, India and their experience with the installation of a pad machine in their village. One young woman tells her dreams of becoming a police officer; another girl discusses the taboo of menstruation, the importance of education and how she had to drop out of school when she got her period.

Not only does this machine, which makes affordable, biodegradable pads, solve problems related to menstruation, it also supplies the women with a steady income in the area.

The film came about after a student group in North Hollywood used crowdfunding to send a pad-making machine – and Iranian-American filmmaker Zehtabchi – to Sneh’s village.The machines cost about $12,000 and a non-profit association called the Pad Project has been created to outfit other areas with similar technology.