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Komal Minhas isn’t exaggerating when she calls 2016 a year in which the highest highs were juxtaposed with the lowest lows.
Dream, Girl – a documentary the 26-year-old produced with director Erin Bagwell – screened at the White House. The Oprah Winfrey Network named the pair to its list of top trailblazers. Their doc, about female entrepreneurs, was dubbed a feminist film to watch.
Meanwhile, Minhas was battling a rare form of skin cancer.
Now the Carleton grad is back in her adopted hometown for a screening of Dream, Girl at the Mayfair Theatre Tuesday, followed by a conversation with her friend and ally in empowering girls and women, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
Tickets have been sent to high schools and women’s shelters for the film with the slogan “It’s time we stop telling girls they can be anything they want to be and show them what it means to be a leader.”
Postmedia reached her in her new home of Brooklyn, N.Y., to talk about her incredible year and what’s to come.
Hearing that you have cancer is terrifying – what impact did it have on you?
It really challenged me and showed me what I’m made of, how much pain and trauma I can take and how I can continue to move forward and fight to take my life back every day. Even after you get the news you’re cancer free, that’s really when a whole other journey begins of reclaiming your life. It’s been a constant back and forth over the past 11 months of the highest highs of my life mixed with the lowest lows of my life. When I was flying back to Ottawa for my last surgery … that was the week that I was on the cover of Power & Influence (magazine). Sophie had seen a copy of it and sent me congratulations. I had so much fear. … She gave me some beautiful words of wisdom about befriending fear, knowing that it has been a part of your life but you can move forward in a stronger way by reconciling that.
What’s been the impact of being named to Oprah Winfrey Network’s SuperSoul 100 list?
We found out about (it) about three weeks after I was diagnosed — so it was a real moment of pause for us to celebrate. We got to go to Los Angeles, meet all the other incredible people in the list, meet … game changers around the world. Funny story: When Oprah came to Ottawa back in 2013, I pitched my way into the meet-and-greet with her. …You have 10 seconds with this person … I was like, what am I going to say? …I said to her, ‘Oprah, we’re going to meet many times in our lives, this is the first time and I just wanted to say hello.’ She laughed and hugged me and asked my name. When I met her again in L.A., I shared with her my diagnosis and that story. She just grabbed my hand and said, ‘Did you ever think you could make it happen this fast?’
What should we be doing to promote female entrepreneurship?
I think that in order for young women to know that business and entrepreneurship is a potential path for them … they need to see more real role models of it. That’s where Dream, Girl comes in. Of the five main characters we profile, four of the five are women of colour. And that’s something we just never see traditionally on screen. All of the women we profile are business owners, and successful business owners. They’ve gone through their highs and their lows but they are authentically real, complicated women. … We need to provide more young women with access to more role models and more of those stories. These women exist.
Who are the female entrepreneurs in Ottawa you find inspiring?
Nikki Laframboise, she just opened Elements, a luxury camping ground. She just opened this spring and she’s doing an incredible job with it. … Sue Norton, is another incredible entrepreneur, she runs (e-retailer) Pink Tiger. … The list is quite long, actually. There are some really strong, incredible female entrepreneurs in and around Ottawa.
—
This interview has been edited for length. The screening is at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 at the Mayfair Theatre. Watch the trailer at dreamgirlfilm.com.
查看原文...
Dream, Girl – a documentary the 26-year-old produced with director Erin Bagwell – screened at the White House. The Oprah Winfrey Network named the pair to its list of top trailblazers. Their doc, about female entrepreneurs, was dubbed a feminist film to watch.
Meanwhile, Minhas was battling a rare form of skin cancer.
Now the Carleton grad is back in her adopted hometown for a screening of Dream, Girl at the Mayfair Theatre Tuesday, followed by a conversation with her friend and ally in empowering girls and women, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
Tickets have been sent to high schools and women’s shelters for the film with the slogan “It’s time we stop telling girls they can be anything they want to be and show them what it means to be a leader.”
Postmedia reached her in her new home of Brooklyn, N.Y., to talk about her incredible year and what’s to come.
Hearing that you have cancer is terrifying – what impact did it have on you?
It really challenged me and showed me what I’m made of, how much pain and trauma I can take and how I can continue to move forward and fight to take my life back every day. Even after you get the news you’re cancer free, that’s really when a whole other journey begins of reclaiming your life. It’s been a constant back and forth over the past 11 months of the highest highs of my life mixed with the lowest lows of my life. When I was flying back to Ottawa for my last surgery … that was the week that I was on the cover of Power & Influence (magazine). Sophie had seen a copy of it and sent me congratulations. I had so much fear. … She gave me some beautiful words of wisdom about befriending fear, knowing that it has been a part of your life but you can move forward in a stronger way by reconciling that.
What’s been the impact of being named to Oprah Winfrey Network’s SuperSoul 100 list?
We found out about (it) about three weeks after I was diagnosed — so it was a real moment of pause for us to celebrate. We got to go to Los Angeles, meet all the other incredible people in the list, meet … game changers around the world. Funny story: When Oprah came to Ottawa back in 2013, I pitched my way into the meet-and-greet with her. …You have 10 seconds with this person … I was like, what am I going to say? …I said to her, ‘Oprah, we’re going to meet many times in our lives, this is the first time and I just wanted to say hello.’ She laughed and hugged me and asked my name. When I met her again in L.A., I shared with her my diagnosis and that story. She just grabbed my hand and said, ‘Did you ever think you could make it happen this fast?’
What should we be doing to promote female entrepreneurship?
I think that in order for young women to know that business and entrepreneurship is a potential path for them … they need to see more real role models of it. That’s where Dream, Girl comes in. Of the five main characters we profile, four of the five are women of colour. And that’s something we just never see traditionally on screen. All of the women we profile are business owners, and successful business owners. They’ve gone through their highs and their lows but they are authentically real, complicated women. … We need to provide more young women with access to more role models and more of those stories. These women exist.
Who are the female entrepreneurs in Ottawa you find inspiring?
Nikki Laframboise, she just opened Elements, a luxury camping ground. She just opened this spring and she’s doing an incredible job with it. … Sue Norton, is another incredible entrepreneur, she runs (e-retailer) Pink Tiger. … The list is quite long, actually. There are some really strong, incredible female entrepreneurs in and around Ottawa.
—
This interview has been edited for length. The screening is at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 at the Mayfair Theatre. Watch the trailer at dreamgirlfilm.com.
查看原文...
