Ouaga Girls

This cinema verité documentary follows a small group of young women who are studying to become auto mechanics at the Women’s Center of Initiation and Apprenticeship to Trades in Ouagadougou. With unemployment among young people exceeding 50 percent, these classmates are eager to challenge society’s expectations and demonstrate that women can do any job, including this traditionally male one. Between transforming rusty old cars with hammers, wrenches, and spanners and dressing up to go dancing and drinking, they find their unique path to adulthood against the background of political change in Burkina Faso.