“Between the Mountain and the Sky” won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the recent Sedona International Film Festival. The film also won Best Documentary honors at Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, the Dublin Independent Film Festival and Jakarta Independent Film Festival, the Naples Film Festival and Port Townsend Film Festival.
“Between the Mountain and the Sky” tells the inspiring true story of Maggie Doyne. In 2005 after graduating high school, she embarked on a gap year, where she met Tope Malla, a now grown Nepalese orphan, caring for orphaned children.
United in purpose, Maggie and Tope pooled resources to establish a children’s home, women's empowerment program, and school in Nepal. Years later, their relentless efforts led to being honored as a 2015 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR. Just days after the ceremony, Maggie, by then guardian to over fifty Nepalese children, faced the unthinkable upon returning to Nepal, plunging the family into disbelief and despair.
After a chance encounter amidst her grief, Maggie allows a filmmaker into her life to document herself, her family, and soon enough, their falling in love. “Between the Mountain and the Sky” explores resilience, love's impact in loss, and a family's enduring strength to find and rekindle hope in the darkest times.
Since then, Doyne has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times among many other publications. Alongside a team of caregivers, teachers, and community members, she has helped raise nearly 90 children and educate more than 800 students.