“Between the Mountain and the Sky” chronicles Maggie Doyne’s extraordinary journey from a recent high school graduate in 2005 to the CEO and co-founder of BlinkNow, a Nepali nongovernmental organization and U.S. nonprofit. Currently, the foundation operates a home for at-risk students, a school, a health and wellness program, a women’s center, a program for future career readiness, and integrated sustainability initiatives.
The documentary, playing on March 27 and 30, is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. Director Jeremy Power Regimbal, Doyne’s husband, captures her indomitable spirit. At 18, Doyne took a gap year before college, and set off to see the world with just a backpack. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, she decided to spend a year working at a children’s home in India. There she met and cared for orphans alongside Tope Malla, who would later become co-founder of BlinkNow. In 2006, visiting Surkhet, Nepal, Doyne witnessed one of the poorest countries in the world recovering from a decadelong civil war that left 1 million orphans in its wake. While there, she met a 7-year-old girl breaking stones in a dry riverbed to sell for a few dollars to help feed her family. Doyne was determined to help by paying for the child’s tuition, uniform, and books so she could attend school. After assisting others, Doyne realized that some needed a safe place to call home. She partnered with Tope, and together, they began to build what would become the vital organization it is today.
“Between the Mountain and the Sky” opens with Tope and Doyne bringing two new children into “the family.” Although the home already has some 50 children of all ages, the youth readily embrace the newcomers. There are many joyous scenes of the family, in which smiles, laughter, and group hugs abound. Referring to her childhood, Doyne says, “I knew what it was to be safe and tucked in at night. When you come from that, you don’t realize what a privilege that is … The only thing I knew how to do was to recreate some of the common threads of the childhood I was given … I wasn’t trying to adopt kids; I was trying to create a safe home. But I completely fell in love with them, and realized I wanted to live there full-time.” Soon, the children decided to call Doyne “Mom,” and the facility expanded to include six caretakers.
Doyne did not want to impose outside solutions on her initiatives, but has worked closely with the community and officials in all her efforts. She initially asked herself, “How can I do justice to the life they won’t have, and what they’ve lost in terms of their biological family? How do I keep their sense of identity, and keep that connection alive? I can’t erase any of their trauma or what they’ve lost. I also can’t be 100 percent of what they’re going to miss out on.” Therefore, Doyne and Tope have diligently worked to intentionally create rituals around holidays, birthdays, and family memories, ensuring the kids return to their villages whenever possible.
About a third of the way into the film, a heartbreaking tragedy strikes, and the story turns to how Doyne painstakingly worked through the devastation herself, and helped the entire community eventually move forward. We watch the children grow and thrive, and witness the sweet sadness as some leave the nest.
Toward the end, Doyne shares about surviving the tragedy: “That’s the pain of being human. You have to go through hard things, and you have to make a choice. You have to choose to love again. And you have to choose joy again … I’ve seen what love does. It’s the thread that connects us all. I’m doing everything I can with this one precious life to leave this place a little better for the next generation.”
“Between the Mountain and the Sky” screens on March 27 and 30. Director Jeremy Power Regimbal and documentary subject Maggie Doyne, a CNN Hero of the Year in 2015, and featured in Forbes and the New York Times, will attend. For pay-what-you-can tickets, visit tmvff.org/mountainandthesky.
