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Apache 8
A film by Sande Zeig
Between 1974 and 2005, a crew of women from the White Mountain Apache Tribe fought raging fires in Arizona and other states. Featuring extensive interviews, childhood photos, and on-location and news footage, this insightful and honest documentary profiles the Apache 8 group through four women, who share their experiences. Interweaving the scenes of raging fires, intense training sessions, and disrupted home life are personal stories of sacrifice, tragedy, pride, and accomplishment. While the women may have initially set out to try and earn a living in their economically ravaged community, they quickly discover an inner strength and resilience that speaks to their traditions and beliefs as Native women. More.

Native American Film & Video Festival
 

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Atomic Mom
A film by M.T. Silvia
ATOMIC MOM weaves an intimate portrait of complex mother-daughter relationships within an important moment of American history. It also provides a global perspective on our collective Atomic legacy. Through revealing interviews with Japanese survivors, doctors and historians, the film reveals the truth regarding post-war censorship in Japan and America regarding images and information related to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It inspires dialogue about human rights, personal responsibility and the possibility – and hope – of peace. More.

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Cover Girl Culture (60 min Director's Cut)
A film by Nicole Clark
In this eye-opening documentary, filmmaker and former Elite International fashion model Nicole Clark, now a champion for young girls and their self-esteem, calls for a necessary change: integrity and responsible media for our youth. Clark is given rare access to women editors from major magazines like Teen Vogue and ELLE, who provide a shocking defense of the fashion and advertising worlds. The film juxtaposes these interviews with revealing insights from models, parents, teachers, psychologists, body image experts and most importantly, the heartfelt expressions of girls themselves on how they feel about the media that surrounds them. This new 60 minute Director’s Cut is a compelling, powerful rendition for classrooms that allows additional time for discussion. More.

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Girl Power: All Dolled Up
A film by Sarah Blout Rosenberg
The featured players of GIRL POWER include Jasmine, 16, who wants to be a midwife when she grows up; 13 year old Visceria who can’t decide if she wants to be a model or a lawyer; and other strong-minded girls, from pre-schoolers to "tweens", who share with us the process of discovering their identities. Who are they now and who do they want to be? How are they impacted by the images of “girl power” they see? More.

The Learning
A film by Ramona Diaz
THE LEARNING chronicles an emotionally charged year in the lives of four Filipino women as they leave their homeland to teach in Baltimore’s inner-city schools. With their increased salaries, they hope to transform their families’ impoverished lives back home. But the women also bring idealistic visions of the teacher’s craft and of life in America, which soon collide with Baltimore’s tough realities. More.

Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival
Asian American International Film Fest

No Job For A Woman: The Women Who Fought To Report WWII
A film by By Michele Midori Fillion
Before World War II, war reporting was considered to be absolutely “no job for a woman.” But when the United States entered the war, American women reporters did not want to miss covering the biggest story of the century so they fought for and won access. But there was a catch: women reporters would be banned from the frontlines, prevented from covering front page stories about generals and battlefield maneuvers, and assigned “woman’s angle” stories about nurses and female military personnel. Several women reporters refused to abide by these journalistic conventions and military restrictions and, instead, brought home a new kind of war story: one that was more intimate yet more revealing. They reached beyond the battlefield and deep into human lives to tell a new story of war. More.

Sarasota Film Festival, Through Women’s Eyes Intl., Official Selection

Quest for Honor
A film by Mary Ann Smothers Bruni
There is an alarming rise in “honor killing,” the heinous act of men killing daughters, sisters, and wives who threaten “family honor,” which endangers tens of thousands of women in Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and adjoining countries. Global communication through satellite television, Internet, and cell phones has raised the expectations of young Middle Eastern women, who now are not content to marry a much older relative to their father might choose and live a life of servitude. While young women respond to new ideas from cyber pals in Los Angeles or episodes of popular Western sitcom, their fathers and brothers demand strict tribal justice for their acts. More.

Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection
Amsterdam Film Festival, Winner, Van Gogh Award

Scarlet Road
A film by Catherine Scott, Produced by Pat Fiske
Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton has become highly specialized in working with clients with disabilities. Rachel’s philosophy – that human tough and sexual intimacy can be some of the most therapeutic aspects to our existence – has made a dramatic impact on the lives of her clients, from improved mental health to actually regaining body movement. SCARLET ROAD follows Rachel as she strives to increase awareness and access to sexual expression for disabled people through her foundation, “Touching Base,” which works to gain rights for sex workers and end the social stigma and discriminatory practices that surround their occupation. In addition, she obtains an MS in Sexual Health, all to further her mission to end the stigma placed on two marginalized groups. More.

SXSW, North American Premiere
Sydney Film Festival, World Premiere
 

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Seeing Through the Media Matrix
A film by Nicole Clark
An in-depth 60 minute program based on the topics and solutions examined in Cover Girl Culture. Newly released footage of key insights, wisdom and tips from experts and girls in Cover Girl Culture, presented in short movie clips on over 20 topics. Each clip includes activities or though provoking messages for your groups or daughter(s) as well as a special section strictly for parents/educators. More.

Pink Saris
A film by Kim Longinotto
"A girl's life is cruel...A woman's life is very cruel," notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the center of PINK SARIS, internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto's latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women. Sampat should know - like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which made her work hard and beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep. Like Rekha, a fourteen year old Untouchable, who is three months pregnant and homeless or fifteen year old Renu, whose father-in-law has been raping her. Both young women, frightened and desperate, reach out for their only hope: Sampat Pal and her Gulabi Gang, Northern India's women vigilantes in pink. More.

Sheffield Doc Fest, Special Jury Prize
Abu Dhabi Int'l Film Festival, Best Documentary

Africa is a Woman's Name
A film by Ingrid Sinclair, Bridget Pickering & Wanjiru Kinyanjui
AFRICA IS A WOMAN’S NAME provides an opportunity for three of Africa’s leading filmmakers to tell their own country’s stories through the lives of the powerful women working to create change. Veteran filmmakers Wanjiru Kinyanjui, from Zimbabwe, and Bridget Pickering, from South Africa, join Kenyan Ingrid Sinclair, director of the critically acclaimed feature film FLAME, to profile three diverse women who eloquently demonstrate the power of women. More.

Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece
Women of the Sun Film Festival, Johannesburg

Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
A film by Roberta Grossman
At only 22, Hungarian poet Hannah Senesh made the ultimate sacrifice - having already escaped Nazi-occupied Europe for Palestine and freedom, she returned, parachuting in behind enemy lines in a valiant effort to save Hungary's Jews from deportation to Auschwitz and certain death. Captured immediately upon crossing the border into Hungary, Hannah was tortured and taken to a prison in Budapest, yet she refused to reveal the coordinates of her fellow resistance fighters - even when they also arrested her mother, Catherine. Hannah became a symbol of courage for her fellow prisoners, encouraging them to remain in good spirits, never losing faith in her Jewish identity, even as she was led out to be executed by firing squad. More.

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Dish
Women, Waitressing and the Art of Service
A film by Maya Gallus
Why do women bring your food at local diners, while in high-end establishments waiters are almost always men? DISH, by Maya Gallus, whose acclaimed GIRL INSIDE (2007) won Canada’s Gemini Award for documentary directing, answers this question in a delicious, well-crafted deconstruction of waitressing and our collective fascination with an enduring popular icon. Digging beyond the obvious, Gallus, who waited tables in her teens, explores diverse dynamics between food servers and customers, as well as cultural biases and attitudes they convey. More.

Hot Docs International Film Fest
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal

 

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Duhozanye: A Rwandan Village of Widows
A film by Karoline Frogner
During the 1994 genocidal campaign that claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans and committed atrocities against countless others, Daphrose Mukarutamu, a Tutsi, lost her husband and all but two of her 11 children. In the aftermath she considered suicide. But instead, she took in 20 orphans and started Duhozanye, an association of Tutsi and Hutu widows who were married to Tutsi men. This powerful documentary by award-winning Norwegian director Karoline Frogner recounts the story of Duhozanye’s formation and growth—from a support group of neighbors who share their traumatic experiences, rebuild their homes, and collect and bury their dead, to an expanding member-driven network that advances the empowerment of Rwandan women. More.
 

Fighting the Silence
A film by Ilse van Velzen & Femke van Velzen
FIGHTING THE SILENCE tells the story of ordinary Congolese women and men that are struggling to change their society: one that prefers to blame victims rather than prosecute rapists. Rape survivors and their families speak out openly about the suffering they endured because their culture considers women second class citizens and rape a taboo. They give voice to thousands of other survivors and their families who have chosen to hide their grief and remain silent for fear of being rejected by their families and community. More.

Watchdoc Human Rights Film Festival Poland, Best Documentary
Millenium Film Festival, Jury Award

 

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Grace, Milly, Lucy . . . Child Soldiers
A film by Raymonde Provencher
When we usually speak about child soldiers, we rarely realize that many of them are girls. This little-known reality is underscored by the gripping personal accounts of Grace Akallo, Milly Auma, and Lucy Lanyero in Raymonde Provencher's riveting, visually stunning film. As adults seeking to rebuild their lives, they are three among thousands of young girls violently abducted from Ugandan villages by the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel force that trained kidnapped girls to fight and kill, often forcing them into child-bearing unions with their captors.  More.

Hot Docs International Film Fest, World Premiere
 

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In the Name of the Family
Honor Killings in North America
A Film by Shelley Saywell
Schoolgirl Aqsa Parvez, sisters Amina and Sarah Said, and college student Fauzia Muhammad were all North American teenagers—and victims of premeditated, murderous attacks by male family members. Only Muhammad survived. Emmy® winner Shelley Saywell examines each case in depth in this riveting investigation of “honor killings” of girls in Muslim immigrant families. Not sanctioned by Islam, the brutaliza­tion and violence against young women for defying male authority derives from ancient tribal notions of honor and family shame. More.

International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam
Hot Docs International Film Fest, Best Canadian Feature

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Made in India: A Film about Surrogacy
A film by Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha In San Antonio, Lisa and Brian Switzer risk their savings with a Medical Tourism company promising them an affordable solution after seven years of infertility. Halfway around the world in Mumbai, 27-year-old Aasia Khan, mother of three, contracts with a fertility clinic to be implanted with the Texas couple’s embryos. MADE IN INDIA, about real people involved in international surrogacy, follows the Switzers and Aasia through every stage of the process. More.

Hot Docs International Film Fest
Woodstock Film Festival
 

Mother, Lebanon & Me
A Film by Olga Nakkas
A visually striking meditation on loss and a perceptive political critique, this deeply personal work has two subjects: filmmaker Olga Nakkas’s ailing mother and the chaotic country where Nakkas was raised. Both fell sick in 1975, the onset of incurable depression for one and a bloody civil war ushering in deep divisions for the other. In this sequel to LEBANON: BITS AND PIECES (1994), Nakas ponders the plight of the country she clearly loves while honoring the mother dear to her. More.

Beirut International Documentary Film Festival

 

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Mountains that Take Wing - Angela Davis & Yuri Kochiyama: A Conversation on Life, Struggles & Liberation
A film by C.A. Griffith & H.L.T. Quan
Features conversations that span thirteen years between two formidable women whose lives and political work remain at the epicenter of the most important civil rights struggles in the U.S. Through conversations that are intimate and profound, we learn about Davis, an internationally renowned scholar-activist and 89-year-old Kochiyama, a revered grassroots community activist and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. They share experiences as political prisoners and their profound passion for justice.

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Orchids: My Intersex Adventure
A film by Phoebe Hart
Gen X filmmaker Phoebe Hart always knew she was different growing up – but she didn’t know why. This award-winning documentary traces Phoebe’s voyage of self-discovery as an intersex person, a group of conditions formerly termed hermaphroditism. Learning only in her teens that she was born with 46XY (male) chromosomes, Hart now seeks to understand her own story and the stories of others affected by this complex and often shameful syndrome.

Frameline, San Francisco LGBT Film Festival
OUTFEST: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

 

The Price of Sex
A film by Mimi Chakarova
An unprecedented and compelling inquiry into a dark side of immigration so difficult to cover or probe with depth, THE PRICE OF SEX sheds light on the underground criminal network of human trafficking and experiences of trafficked Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Photojournalist Mimi Chakarova’s feature documentary caps years of painstaking, on-the-ground reporting that aired on Frontline (PBS) and 60 Minutes (CBS) and earned her an Emmy nomination, Magnum photo agency’s Inge Morath Award, and a Webby for Internet excellence.

2011 Sarasota Film Festival, World Premiere
Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Pushing the Elephant
A film by Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel
In the late 1990s, Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to the violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo. She emerged advocating forgiveness and reconciliation. In a country where ethnic violence has created seemingly irreparable rifts among Tutsis, Hutus and other Congolese, this remarkable woman is a vital voice in her beleaguered nation's search for peace. PUSHING THE ELEPHANT will capture one of the most important stories of our age, a time when genocidal violence is challenged by the moral fortitude and grace of one woman's mission for peace. More.

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
Human Rights Watch Film Fest, NYC
 

Rachel
A film by Simone Bitton
RACHEL is a startlingly rigorous, fascinating and deeply moving investigatory documentary that examines the death of peace activist and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003. A few weeks after her little-reported death, an inquiry by Israeli military police concluded that Corrie died in an accident. More.

Berlin International Film Festival
HotDocs

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Sarabah
A film by Maria Luisa Gambale & Gloria Bremer, Executive Produced by Steven Lawrence
Rapper, singer and activist, Sister Fa is hero to young women in Senegal and an unstoppable force for social change. A childhood victim of female genital cutting (FGC), she decided to tackle the issue by starting a grassroots campaign, “Education Without Excision,” which uses her music and persuasive powers to end the practice. But until 2010 there’s one place she had never brought her message – back home to her own village of Thionck Essyl, where she fears rejection. Sarabah follows Sister Fa on this challenging journey, where she speaks out passionately to female elders and students alike, and stages a rousing concert that has the community on its feet. A portrait of an artist as activist, Sarabah shows the extraordinary resilience, passion and creativity of a woman who boldly challenges gender and cultural norms. It’s an inspiring story of courage, hope and change. More.  

Movies That Matter Film Festival, Winner, Golden Butterfly Award
Mill Valley Film Festival
 

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Umoja
No Men Allowed
A film by Elizabeth Tadic
UMOJA (Kiswahili for “unity”) tells the life-changing story of a group of impoverished tribal Samburu women in Northern Kenya who turn age-old patriarchy on its head by setting up a women-only village. Their story began in the 1990s, when several hundred women accused British soldiers from a nearby military base of rape. In keeping with traditional Samburu customs, the women were blamed for this abuse and cast out by their husbands for bringing shame to their families. More.

International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam
First Factual Films Festival, Winner, Inaugural F4 Award for Outstanding New Documentary Talent
 

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Voices Unveiled: Turkish Women Who Dare
A film by Binnur Karaevli
Can Islamic values co-exist with full equality for women? VOICES UNVEILED examines this timely issue through portraits of three women pursuing life paths and careers of their own choosing in present-day Turkey.

Each has defied social expectations in a democratic, secular nation where religious fundamentalism has re-emerged as a political force and patriarchal values still prevail. Well-known textile artist Belkis Belpinar, whose work combines science and kilim rug traditions, resisted her father’s wishes that she study engineering. Dancer and psychologist Banu Yucelar braved family opposition to modern dance, widely perceived as a form of prostitution. Women’s rights activist Nur Bakata Mardin helps women in underserved communities, where old beliefs hold sway, form small business cooperatives.

Rome Independent Film Festival
London International Doc Film Festival

 

Weapon of War
A film by Ilse van Velzen & Femke van Velzen
In no other country has sexual violence matched the scale of brutality reached in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR). During nearly two decades of conflicts between rebels and government forces, an estimated 150,000 Congolese women and girls fell victim to mass rape. That figure continues to rise.

WEAPON OF WAR, an award-winning film honored by Amnesty International, journeys to the heart of this crisis, where we meet its perpetrators. In personal interviews, soldiers and former combatants provide openhearted but shocking testimony about rape in the DCR. Despite differing views on causes or criminal status, all reveal how years of conflict, as well as discrimination against women, have normalized brutal sexual violence. We also see former rapists struggling to change their own or others’ behavior, and reintegrate into their communities.

Movies That Matter Film Festival, The Netherlands, Official Selection
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Official Selection


 

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Women of Turkey: Between Islam and Secularism
A Film by Olga Nakkas
In this thought-provoking documentary, veiled and unveiled women explore relationships between Islam and secularism in present-day Turkey, where millions of women, many of them educated and urban, wear the headscarf or hijab. For her survey, filmmaker Olga Nakkas, who was born in Turkey and raised in Lebanon, draws on historical footage and individual visits with Turkish women from across the professional spectrum. Their wide-ranging interviews, which analyze the background and impact of controversial bans on headscarves in universities and civil service, yield fresh perspectives on Turkish women’s integration of Islamic culture and modern lifestyles, as well as their far-reaching achievements and priorities for the future. More.

New York Film and Video Festival
Beirut Film Festival

 

Africa Rising
A film by Paula Heredia
Every day, six thousand girls are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). With little more than fierce determination and deep love for their communities, brave African activists are breaking the silence and leading a formidable and fearless grassroots movement to end five thousand years of this human rights violation. Traveling through remote villages in five African countries, this extraordinary film presents an insightful look at a quiet revolution taking the African continent by storm. More.

After the Rape
A film by Catherine Ulmer
In 2002, Mukhtar Mai, a rural Pakistani woman from a remote part of the Punjab, was gang-raped by order of her tribal council as punishment for her younger brother's alleged relationship with a woman from another clan. Instead of committing suicide or living in shame, Mukhtar spoke out, fighting for justice in the Pakistani courts - making world headlines. Further defying custom, she started two schools for girls in her village and a crisis center for abused women. More.

Antonia Pantoja: ¡Presente!
A film by Lillian Jiménez
Antonia Pantoja (1922-2002), visionary Puerto Rican educator, activist, and early proponent of bilingual education, inspired multiple generations of young people and fought for many of the rights that people take for granted today. Unbowed by obstacles she encountered as a black, Puerto Rican woman, she founded ASPIRA to empower Puerto Rican youth, and created other enduring leadership and advocacy organizations in New York and California, across the United States, and in Puerto Rico. More.

Arresting Ana
A film by Lucie Schwartz
Sarah is a French college student who runs a "pro-Ana" blog, part of a global online community of young women sharing tips on living with anorexia. Valerie Boyer is a passionate French National Assembly legislator who is proposing a groundbreaking bill that aims to ban these online forums, issuing hefty fines and two-year prison sentences to their members. The first film to offer unprecedented access into the worldwide pro-anorexia movement, ARRESTING ANA also looks for effective solutions to ending this serious disease and provides insight into issues of freedom of speech in a new media landscape. More.

Chisholm '72 - Unbought and Unbossed
A film by Shola Lynch
Recalling a watershed event in U.S. politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first to seek nomination for the highest office in the land. More.
 

Cover Girl Culture
A film by Nicole Clark
In this eye-opening documentary, filmmaker Nicole Clark, a former Elite International fashion model, gets in the face of advertisers and fashion industry leaders and calls for integrity and responsible media for our youth. An important examination of how advertising and the cult of celebrity have deeply and negatively impacted teens and young women, COVER GIRL CULTURE pairs television and print ads with footage from the catwalks and juxtaposes shocking interviews with models and editors from top fashion magazines with revealing insights from parents, teachers, psychologists, and the heartfelt testimonies of girls themselves. More.

A Crushing Love
A film by Sylvia Morales
A CRUSHING LOVE, Sylvia Morales' sequel to her groundbreaking history of Chicana women, CHICANA (1979), honors the achievements of five activist Latinas-labor organizer/farm worker leader Dolores Huerta, author/educator Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez, writer/playwright/educator Cherrie Moraga, civil rights advocate Alicia Escalante, and historian/writer Martha Cotera - and considers how these single mothers manage to simultaneously be parents and effect broad-based social change. Both the activists and filmmaker, along with their grown children, thoughtfully explore the challenges, adaptations, rewards, and missteps involved in juggling these dual roles. More.

El General
A film by Natalia Almada
Filmmaker Natalia Almada's great-grandfather Plutarco Elias Calles served as a general in the Mexican Revolution and became the president of Mexico in 1924. Today, he is remembered as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until his exile in 1936. EL GENERAL brings to life audio recordings Almada inherited from her grandmother about her great-grandfather, presenting a complex and visually arresting portrait of a family and country living under the shadows of the past. More.

Sundance Film Festival,
        US Directing Award: Documentary
      

Ella es el Matador (She is the Matador)
A film by Gemma Cubero and
Celeste Carrasco
For Spaniards - and for the world - nothing has expressed the country's traditionally rigid gender roles more powerfully than the image of the male matador. So sacred was the bullfighter's masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport. ELLA ES EL MATADOR (SHE IS THE MATADOR) reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary, and offers fascinating profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena, the acclaimed Mari Paz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. These women are gender pioneers by necessity. But what emerges as their truest motivation is their sheer passion - for bullfighting and the pursuit of a dream. More.

Tribeca All Access,
       Creative Promise Award
Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel
       Documentary Festival, Official
       Selection , U.S. Premiere

THE HERETICS
A film by Joan Braderman
Tracing the influence of the Women's Movement's Second Wave on art and life, THE HERETICS is the exhilarating inside story of the New York feminist art collective that produced "Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics" (1977-92). In this feature-length documentary, cutting-edge video artist/writer/director Joan Braderman, who joined the group in 1971 as an aspiring filmmaker, reconnects with 28 other group members and charts this smart, funny and sexy collective's challenges to terms of gender and power and its history as a microcosm of the period's broader transformations. More.

Latching On
A film by Katja Esson
After filmmaker Katja Esson's sister gave birth in Germany, she was able to breastfeed her baby anywhere and at any time. Returning home to New York, Esson found that breastfeeding was rarely practiced and largely unseen. Academy Award® Nominee Esson (FERRY TALES) turned her quirky eye on the subject and set out to learn why this was so. More.

Middle of Everywhere
A film by Rebecca Lee & Jesper Malmberg
Rebecca Lee returns home to South Dakota in 2006 on the brink of a historic state vote: House Bill 1215 could make South Dakota the first state to outlaw most abortions since Roe v. Wade passed almost 30 years earlier. When 1215 fails to pass, Lee sets out to uncover what would make a self-proclaimed pro-life state vote against the very measure that would end most legal abortions. In The Middle of Everywhere, Lee discovers the debate to be complex, with both sides claiming compassion for women and the same desire to stop the need for abortion. More.

Miss Gulag
A film by Maria Yatskova
Through the prism of a beauty pageant staged by female inmates of Siberian prison camp UF91-9 emerges a complex narrative about the first generation of women to come of age in post-Soviet Russia. Shot inside the prison and the surrounding countryside, MISS GULAG traces the individual paths of three young women now at different points in their lives. Like their individual circumstances, the shared experience of long jail sentences has made them vigilant about their own destinies. More.

Mrs. Goundo's Daughter
A film by Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater
Mrs. Goundo is on a quest to keep her baby daughter healthy and whole. Having fled drought and ethnic conflict in their native Mali, Mrs.Goundo and her husband moved to Philadelphia to raise three children, including two year old Djenebou who holds natural citizenship having been born in the U.S. But the Goundos are at risk of deportation, as Mrs. Goundo has to convince a immigration judge that Djenebou will suffer genital excision if they are sent back to Mali. Hearing from both Malian activists fighting to end the practice and traditionalists who defend it, this film  reveals the complexity and passion around  protecting a daughter's future. More.

AFI Silverdocs, World Premiere
Human Rights Watch Int'l Film
        Festival, New York
  

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My Toxic Baby
A film by Min Sook Lee
In this timely, compelling, and intimate documentary, new mother Min Sook Lee searches for safe, sane, and affordable ways to raise her baby daughter in an environment that has become increasingly full of toxic threats. A startling look at the numerous toxins found in a baby's food, bedding, clothing, toys, and home, Lee shares her anxieties as she struggles to protect her daughter from hazardous chemicals and introduces other parents making alternative choices in today's chemically laced world. More.

Toronto Int'l Film Festival,
        World Premiere

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority
A film by Kimberlee Bassford
PATSY MINK: AHEAD OF THE MAJORITY explores the remarkable political story of Patsy Takemoto Mink, an Asian American woman who battled racism and sexism - and redefined American politics. Small in stature but giant in vision, in 1965 she became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the U.S. presidency and co-authored Title IX, the landmark legislation that opened up higher education and athletics to America's women. Pioneer, patriot and outcast, Mink's endlessly intriguing story embodies the very history, ideals and spirit of America. More.

Hawaii International Film Festival,
        Audience Award for Favorite
        Documentary
Honolulu International Film Festival,
        Best Documentary, Gold Kahuna
        Award, Best Hawaiian Film

Say My Name
A film by Nirit Peled
Sisters, mothers, businesswomen, music artists - in a hip hop and R'n'B industry world by men and noted for misogyny, the unstoppable female lyricists of SAY MY NAME speak candidly about class, race, and gender in pursuing their passions as female MCs. From hip hop's birthplace in the Bronx to grime on London's Eastside, emerging artists to world renowned stars like MC Lyte and Monie Love, these are women turning adversity into art. More.

AFI Dallas Int'l Film Festival
South by Southwest Film Festival

Sin by Silence
A film by Olivia Klaus
Since 1989, Convicted Women Against Abuse, the first inmate-initiated and -led group inside the US prison system, has changed laws for battered women, raised awareness for those on the outside, and educated a system that does not fully comprehend the complexities of domestic abuse. From behind prison walls, SIN BY SILENCE shatters misconceptions and reveals the extraordinary lives of women who have killed their abusers and now advocate for a future free from domestic violence. More.

Starz Denver Film Festival

Sweatshop Cinderella
A film by Suzanne Wasserman
Arriving from Poland around 1890, Anzia Yezierska's family settled on the Lower East Side, where she toiled in sweatshops and laundries. Defying her parents, she pursued her education and devoted herself full-time to writing award-winning stories and novels in Yiddish-English dialect. Soon Hollywood, which turned two of her works into movies, beckoned her to write screenplays. When disenchantment with that world set in, she returned to New York to write. SWEATSHOP CINDERELLA, by award-winning filmmaker/historian Suzanne Wasserman, vividly depicts this Jewish immigrant writer's amazing story. More.

Tea & Justice: NYPD's 1st Asian Women Officers
A film by Ermena Vinluan
Tea & Justice chronicles the experiences of three women who joined the New York Police Department during the 1980s - the first Asian women to become members of a force that was largely white and predominantly male. In this award-winning documentary, Officer Trish Ormsby and Detectives Agnes Chan and Christine Leung share their fascinating stories about careers and personal lives, as well as satisfactions and risks on the job, the stereotypes they defied, and how they persevered. More.

Toxic Trespass
A film by Barri Cohen
When Canadian filmmaker Barri Cohen discovers that her ten-year-old daughter's blood carries carcinogens like benzene and the long-banned DDT, she travels to toxic hotspots to uncover startling clusters of deadly diseases, as well as evidence that industrialized countries are conducting large-scale toxicological experiments on their children. Combining interviews with affected families and experts with shocking facts and footage, this empowering and moving film is one woman's quest for truth and essential viewing for anyone concerned about the growing connections between environmental pollution, public health, and children's lives. More.

Unveiled Views: Muslim Women Artists Speak Out
A film by Alba Sotorra
In this revealing documentary, five extraordinary Muslim women talk about their occupations, aspirations, and the rights and status of women in their countries. They challenge the expected and enforced rules that dictate their lives and strive to rise above violence and oppression. These self-portraits of hope, heroism, and pride challenge conventional Western stereotypes about women in the Islamic world. More.

Wired for Sex, Lies and Power Trips: It's a Teen's World
A film by Lynn Glazier
An inside look at the culture of sexual harassment and bullying widespread among many teens today, this unique and compelling program examines the price that adolescents, especially girls, pay to be cool, hip and popular in our brave new wired world. Three different groups of culturally diverse teenagers share personal stories of navigating their hyper-sexualized, high-tech environment, where the online posting of racy photos, raunchy videos, and explicit gossip and lies, is as commonplace as bombardment by provocative media messages that degrade and objectify women. More.

Women of Faith
A film by Rebecca M. Alvin
This absorbing documentary examines women's decisions to lead religious lives in the Roman Catholic tradition in the post-feminist era. Throughout history, nuns were given certain advantages over other women, while still oppressed within their vocational pursuits. They were taught to read and write, encouraged to pursue music, literature, art, philosophy and spirituality, and officially allowed to escape marriage's powerless role of wife. But why would a woman choose a nun's life today?  More.