Malala Yousafzai Premieres Documentary at TIFF

Malala Yousafzai premiered her first documentary, 'The Last of the Sea Women', at the Toronto International Film Festival, which showcases the lives of the haenyeo, a matriarchal community of elderly female divers from South Korea's Jeju Island. The film, produced by Yousafzai and directed by Sue Kim, highlights the resilience of these women, whose numbers have dwindled from 30,000 in the 1960s to just 4,000 today. It explores their struggles against environmental threats, including the effects of wastewater from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, and their efforts to preserve their cultural heritage through training and social media outreach. Yousafzai emphasized the empowering stories of these women and their cooperative relationship with nature, expressing her desire to provide a platform for underrepresented voices through her production company, Extracurricular. The documentary will be available globally on Apple TV+ starting October 11.