After picking up prestigious awards at both the Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary) and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Silver Wolf Award), ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS has been acquired by WMM. This inspiring film by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem tells the story of 27-year-old Malalai Joya - an extraordinary, outspoken Afghan woman, a folk hero and a women’s rights activist - who (despite four assassination attempts) was elected to the newly formed democratic parliament in Afghanistan in 2005. Eva Mulvad appeared on the PBS show NOW this week to discuss her film.

WMM is also pleased to announce our recent acquisitions of THESE GIRLS and BELFAST GIRLS: international films that offer rare and insightful glimpses into the lives of young women, their choices and their survival in two different parts of the world. Screened to audiences at the Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals, THESE GIRLS - from widely acclaimed Egyptian director Tahani Rached (SORAÏDA, FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT) - is an irresistibly lively and intensely engaging documentary that follows a band of teenage girls living on the streets of Cairo. The film screens at the Miami International Film Festival this month, and at the Nashville Film Festival in April. Award-winning BELFAST GIRLS is a powerful story of two young women growing up on opposite sides of concrete “peace walls” that divide one community from another. Filmmaker Malin Andersson skillfully reveals how, in their daily struggles and triumphs, the girls have more in common with each other than they have differences.

HEADING SOUTH - WMM FILMS AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST

While the city of Austin, Texas gears up for the arrival of South by Southwest (March 9-17), we are happy to announce that new films associated with WMM will premiere at this prestigious festival. The latest projects from WMM filmmakers Grace Lee (THE GRACE LEE PROJECT), American Zombie, and Judith Helfand (A HEALTHY BABY GIRL), Everything's Cool (co-directed with Daniel B. Gold), both have their regional premieres at SXSW, while Shannon O'Rourke's Maybe Baby from WMM's Production Assistance Program has its world premiere. Other filmmakers from the Production Assistance Program are also showing their latest projects here: Marlo Poras screens Run Granny Run, and Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg screen The Devil Came on Horseback.

In addition, WMM executive director Debra Zimmerman will present on the "International Documentary Trends" panel (Tuesday, March 13, 11-noon).

WMM AT UPCOMING CONFERENCES: WAM! AND ACRL

WMM GOES DIGITAL: Receives Major Grant from NYSCA

WMM has received two grants - from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA) and from the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) - to ensure the digital future of the organization. A major grant from NYSCA will help us remaster and transfer to DVD a significant part of our core collection that is currently not available in digital formats. Digitizing these titles insures the availability of our important collection of films - which we believe are essential to an understanding of the history and current status of women’s filmmaking - to the general public. The grant from NAMAC will help us create a plan for the implementation of the NYSCA grant, improve our website, and create a long-range plan for our digital future.

In addition, WMM recently joined a consortium with three other leading special interest video distributors to explore the establishment of a common internet portal for digital delivery of independent documentaries. Bullfrog Films, California Newsreel, First Run/Icarus Films and Women Make Movies will bring over 100 years of experience in educational distribution and more than 2000 titles to the proposed venture.