‘The heaven of film-making’: how a Dalit orphan got to tell her own story

A gift of a camera inspired Belmaya Nepali to rise above poverty and abuse to make documentaries

I Am Belmaya review

Belmaya Nepali's life changed for ever when, at 14, she was given a camera.

The British film-maker Sue Carpenter had come to Pokhara, a tourist city in central Nepal, to run a photography project with disadvantaged girls living in an institution. One of those girls was Belmaya.