By: Charlotte Lackney
Looking for your next great Netflix binge? A quick, guaranteed one-day watch that’s bound to get your mind turning is Daughters of Destiny, a documentary mini-series. The four-part series was inspired by and filmed at Shanti Bhavan, a co-ed residential school in Tamil Nadu, India, founded by CambridgeEditors’ prior client Dr. Abraham George in 1997. The series follows the lives of five girls raised at Shanti Bhavan over seven years, focusing on their efforts to achieve individualization as well as carve a path to a better future for those who come after them. Daughters of Destiny, created by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, paints the true face of India’s poor and the level of dedication necessary to break the centuries-long cycle that entraps them.
Dr. George, who entrusted CambridgeEditors with his autobiography in 2019, established The George Foundation in 1995. The Foundation is a non-profit charitable trust with the intent to reduce injustices and inequalities in India. His work is the backbone of Shanti Bhavan Residential School, allowing the provision of world-class education and care to children from “untouchable” castes—any member of a wide range of low-caste Hindu groups and any person outside the caste system. As of 2017, the first four groups of students from Shanti Bhavan have graduated from college and are employed by global companies. As of 2021, six have been accepted into undergraduate programs at universities such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Duke, and Stanford. This is an unparalleled accomplishment in India’s history, one that Dr. George says will impact the country’s social climate twenty to twenty-five years down the line.
Since Daughters of Destiny’s release on Netflix in 2017 it has won Television Academy Honors in the Documentary category (2019) and was nominated for the Golden Trailer Award for Best Documentary (2018) and the IDA Award for Best Limited Series (2017).
“The actions of [Dr. George] have undoubtedly transformed the lives of hundreds of seriously disadvantaged children and their families. If that isn’t worth celebrating in this glorious fashion, then I don’t know what is.” – Julia Raeside, The Guardian
“I think [Dr. George] is a real visionary. I think the idea of dropping everything, leaving everything behind, you have to have a certain kind of confidence—a vision.” – Vanessa Roth, Director, Daughters of Destiny
Daughters of Destiny is available for streaming on Netflix.
Learn more about Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project by visiting their website.
CambridgeEditors' Blog 