Contact: Jeff Walton, Institute on Religion and Democracy, 202-682-4131, 202-413-5639 cell, jwalton@TheIRD.org

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Institute on Religion & Democracy congratulates documentary filmmaker Megan Mylan for winning an Academy Award for her film Smile Pinki, which won the award for best short documentary feature. The film is the story of Pinki, a little girl born in dire poverty and with a facial deformity that leaves her a social outcast in her village in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh until she receives an operation to correct her cleft lip. 

Mylan is also known from her previous award-winning film Lost Boys of Sudan, another heart wrenching documentary that follows two of Sudan's former Lost Boys from Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya to their new lives in the United States. Mylan and co-director/producer Jon Shenk used screenings of the film around the country as a way to raise grassroots support for Sudan and Sudanese refugees.

IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell commented:

"Slumdog Millionaire was not the only winning film at the Academy Awards about the transformation of a life of someone in India. Mylan's film shows the joy and hope that come to Pinki when she receives reconstructive surgery for a cleft lip.

"Smile Pinki, just like Mylan's previous work, Lost Boys of Sudan, will affect the lives of many people."

The Reverend John Chol Daau, a former Lost Boy, helped Mylan navigate Kakuma Refugee Camp to film Lost Boys of Sudan. Daau commented:

"One thing that struck me most was Megan's remarkable zeal and passion to keenly listen to the lost boys as the story was narrated. I knew from that moment that she had sacrificially moved out of her comfort zone in order to get the story from the victims and to 'tell it as it is.'  

"Megan was not just a journalist, but a person with a heart of concern standing in the gap, advocating for the rights of humanity and especially on behalf of the vulnerable stripped by social injustices imposed by the regime of Omar al Bashir. 

"I am very grateful and profoundly joyful for Megan. She deserves the Oscar award as she is one among the few who are ready to sacrifice their life by covering and letting the world know about the unbearable injustices existing in countries like Sudan."