This beautiful film showcases Maggie Doyne’s profound love for her 50 children and the heartbreak that almost overwhelmed her.
Maggie grew up in a loving family in New Jersey. Instead of immediately attending college, she chose to take a year to explore the world. During that time, she worked in an orphanage in India alongside a man named Top, who had experienced life as an orphan in Nepal.
Eventually, Maggie and Top left India and established a blue-ribbon orphanage in Surkhet, a remote town in Top’s home country.
I know it became an exceptional orphanage because I visited it in 2015. At that time, I was spending my summers teaching at a school in Kathmandu and at an orphanage in Bangladesh. While researching the best children’s homes in the world online, Maggie’s orphanage consistently ranked number one.
That spring, I was on the phone with my 20-year-old personal assistant, Navraj, who was in Nepal. He was expressing his sorrow over the loss of his principal and mentor, Naim Chowdery, at Bright Horizon Children’s Home, where he still lived. He was in a taxi on his way to the airport with Naim-Sir, who had accepted a position as the principal of a new school established by… Maggie Doyne!
That summer I took Navraj on his first plane flight to visit Naim, his father figure. During our visit, we received a full tour of the children’s home, the women’s entrepreneurial center, the room with looms for weaving, and the school. I conducted a class lesson and facilitated a teacher’s workshop.
We also saw the counselor’s office, a teeth-brushing station next to the dining hall, and enjoyed healthy food alongside happy children. Thanks to Maggie’s fundraising efforts, the initial stages of a state-of-the-art school campus were underway, complete with plans for a soccer field, a stage, animals, and solar power. Indeed, it was Shangri-La.
“Between the Mountain and the Sky” only scratches the surface of the remarkable life of Maggie Doyne and her children. There is much more detail in the book she wrote with the same title, and I find myself missing that elaboration in the film.
However, this doesn’t diminish the fact that Jeremy Rimbald’s portrayal of her story is a sensitive and beautifully crafted love letter, an original title idea of his. Besides the story of Maggie, he focuses on three main subjects: First, he tells the story of Maggie’s first two children, Nisha and Krishna—how they came to be with Maggie and, later, the surprising paths they took to college. Second, he tells the story of a malnourished baby, weighing about 2½ pounds, who was left in her care and required multiple hospital visits. Last, he addresses a tragic accident and the family’s deep grief.
Watching “Between the Mountain and the Sky” generally motivates some to take action, whether by adopting children or simply showing a little more kindness to others. Maggie’s 50 children arrived at her doorstep through tragedy, but in the sanctuary of a safe environment with other children who act as guiding brothers and sisters, they experience tremendous joy.
Rimbald, the filmmaker (seen wearing a t-shirt reading “The Future is Female”), met Maggie during the darkest time, when she thought she couldn’t go on. Her mother had traveled to Surkhet to bring her back home to New Jersey where she cried in bed for weeks, thinking she could never talk before a crowd again to do the necessary fundraising to keep her home going. Rimbald had been working on a project idea and set out to interview her. His sensitive, respectful camerawork began.
Maggie used to joke about using a dating app, describing herself as a 28-year-old with 50 children. But eventually, someone finds himself hiking up a mountain path with 50 new children for a hilltop wedding.
Reflecting on her experiences, she says, still filled with anguish, “The pain of being human — you have to move through hard things — and you have to love again.”
Rating: 10/10
“Between the Mountain and the Sky” is now streaming — but only for a short time. A story of love, grief, and hope that the Kathmandu Post calls “a reminder of what humans are capable of.” Rent by donation at: betweenthemountain.com
Credits
Director: Jeremy Power Regimbal
Executive Producers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Karen Mulvaney and Tom Mulvaney
Associate Producers: David Dzanis, and Marie Dzanis
Co-Producers: Ashley Edouard, Shuli Harel
Camera: Robert Mentov, Jeremy Power Regimbal, and Jesse Regimbal
Producer: Jeremy Power Regimbal
Featuring: Maggie Doyne
Website: https://www.betweenthemountainandthesky.com/
How to view
Note: Maggie Doyne and Rimbald own the rights to this film. Proceeds go to costs of production and Maggie’s organization, Blink Now, that supports her orphanage and school.
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