Sue Carpenter

Sue Carpenter has been involved in women’s rights for 20 years. A journalist and photographer, she moved into filmmaking in 2013. Her first film, There’s Something About Molly, won Best Short Documentary at the Good Dog Film Festival in Sydney, 2016. She has gone on to make several short films. Sue co-founded Asha Nepal, an NGO supporting trafficked women in Nepal. In 2006-2007 she lived in Pokhara, running the My World, My View photo project, where she met Belmaya. Sue is also a Trustee of GlobalGirl Media UK, empowering young women through digital media training.

I Am Belmaya is her first feature-length film and has been selected for numerous international film festivals. It won Best Documentary at UK Asian Film Festival (2021) and was nominated for a One World Media Award (2021).

Born in a hill village near Pokhara, Nepal, Belmaya, 28, has had little formal education. Orphaned at the age of 9, she moved to a home in Pokhara where aged 14 she met Sue Carpenter, who taught her photography. Belmaya participated in exhibitions and a book My World, My View.  In 2014, Belmaya started to learn documentary filmmaking. Her graduation film Educate Our Daughters (2017) has been selected for 7 international film festivals, and won 3 awards, including Best Short Film at UK Asian Film Festival and Best Women’s Film at NCIFF. She was commissioned to make her second film, Rowing Against the Flow (2017), about boatwomen in Pokhara, by Thomson Reuters Foundation. She won a commission from UKAFF to direct the short film Stronger (2021). I Am Belmaya follows her growing passion for filmmaking and the success that has followed. She lives with her daughter, Bipana, 8, in Pokhara.