This documentary follows three girls and their lives at the martial arts school Shaolin Tagou, China’s largest Kung Fu School. Far from their families, they fight an everyday battle of discipline, rules and hard physical training. Kung Fu provides them a chance to provide for their parents in the future and lead a better life—but at what cost?

The Shaolin Tagu Kung Fu School, located next to the Shaolin Temple Monastery—the birthplace of Kung Fu—is home to some 26,000 students. In a breathtaking display of skill and precision, the entire student body practices their discipline en masse and in perfect unison, captured beautifully by Inigo Westmeier’s camera. DRAGON GIRLS follows three young female students living far from their homes and families. They sacrifice the luxuries of childhood, like days off, playtime and seeing their parents, for the honor and success they will gain from their training. The physical and mental exhaustion and constant drive for perfection weigh heavily on the young warriors in training, yet it’s hoped that by graduation the gain will have been worth the struggle.

Many films have been made about kids going to extraordinary lengths to avoid school. This stunningly shot documentary (Cesar Award Winner 2014) captures the stories of four children (Kenya, Patagonia, Morocco and India) and their herculean efforts to get TO school. Instinctively, they know that their well-being, and in many ways survival, depend on knowledge and education. This is a film parents might cite the next time their children complain about getting up for school on a Monday morning.

Jackson crosses the Kenyan savannah on foot, heeding his father’s advice, “If the elephants see you, they will kill you! Run away!”; Carlito rides horseback across rocky, scrub-covered plains and rushing rivers; Zahira treks over treacherous Atlas Mountain passes in Morocco with her classmates supporting one another; Samuel depends on his brothers to push his wheelchair over sand dunes and through swamps of southern Bengal. While the breathtaking cinematography reveals the splendor of their homelands, the dangers of these voyages keep you on the edge of your seat. At the heart of this unforgettable film are the children’s resilience and their unstoppable yearning to learn and improve their lives.

GET LOCAL: Family Services Rhode Island: The Walking School Bus
Family Service of Rhode Island’s Walking School Bus provides routes to and from school. The initiative ensures that each child living within a mile of the school, who needs to walk arrives on time and returns home safely, even when a family member is unable to walk with him or her.  The Walking School Bus serves Bailey and Fogarty elementary schools in Providence’s South Side neighborhood.To learn more about this program and/or to become a volunteer, click here.