OUR CATALOG

Array
(
    [id] => 240
    [title] => New Directions: Women of Zimbabwe
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/new-directions-women-of-zimbabwe
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/new-directions-women-of-zimbabwe/320x-cbe_pi_WomenofZimbabwe.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 1997
    [text] => Available only as part of the series New Directions.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/new-directions-women-of-zimbabwe/cbe_pi_WomenofZimbabwe.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 303
    [title] => Africa, Africas
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/africa-africas
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/africa-africas/320x-cbe_afafri_hires1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2001
    [text] => A rare collection from the emerging voices of African documentary filmmaking, this unique series daringly explores the social and cultural realities experienced in Africa today – including the infiltration of Western beauty standards, territorial displacement and high unemployment.  FANTACOCA by Agnes Ndibi (23 minutes) presents the disturbing cultural phenomenon of skin bleaching in Cameroon and the challenge it is now posing on notions of black pride and identity.  THE RIVER BETWEEN US by Maji-da Abdi (18 minutes) documents the alarming effects of war on a community of Ethiopian women and children who were forcibly relocated into refugee camps. LAAFI BALA by Fanta Regina Nacro (20 minutes) demonstrates the glaring causes of wide-spread unemployment and poverty in Burkina Faso, where few institutional resources and government support are available, and the debilitating effects this is having on women and youth.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/africa-africas/cbe_afafri_hires1.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 397
    [title] => Iron Ladies of Liberia
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/iron-ladies-of-liberia
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/iron-ladies-of-liberia/320x-Iron_Ladies_hires1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2007
    [text] => After surviving a 14-year civil war and a government riddled with corruption, Liberia is ready for change. On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated President – the first freely elected female head of state in Africa. Having won a hotly contested election with the overwhelming support of women across Liberia, Sirleaf faces the daunting task of lifting her country from debt and devastation. She turns to a remarkable team of women, appointing them in positions such as police chief, finance minister, minister of justice, commerce minister and minister of gender. 

With exclusive access, directors Siatta Scott Johnson and Daniel Junge follow these “Iron Ladies” behind the scenes during their critical first year in office as they tackle indolent bureaucracy, black markets and the omnipresent threat of violent riots. Highlighting the challenges that African countries currently face, this film provides an uplifting example of women who have become the backbone of change. As the filmmakers explore a historic transition from authoritarianism to democracy, the viewer is treated to a joyous, inspirational testimony of the political power of women's leadership and diplomacy.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/iron-ladies-of-liberia/Iron_Ladies_hires1.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 418
    [title] => Mrs. Goundo's Daughter
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/mrs-goundos-daughter
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/mrs-goundos-daughter/320x-goundo_hires2-beforeexcision.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2009
    [text] => Mrs. Goundo is fighting to remain in the United States. But it’s not just because of the ethnic conflict and drought that has plagued her native Mali. Threatened with deportation, her two-year-old daughter could be forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), like 85 percent of women and girls in Mali. Using rarely cited grounds for political asylum, Goundo must convince an immigration judge that her daughter is in danger. 

Sensitive and moving, this important film reveals how women are profoundly affected by the legal struggles surrounding immigration. As issues of asylum, international law and human rights collide with FGM and its devastating health consequences, filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater travel between an FGM ceremony in a Malian village, where dozens of girls are involved, to the West African expatriate community of Philadelphia, where Mrs. Goundo challenges beliefs and battles the American legal system for her child’s future.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/mrs-goundos-daughter/goundo_hires2-beforeexcision.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 422
    [title] => Africa Rising
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/africa-rising
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/africa-rising/320x-AfricaRising_HiRes3.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2009
    [text] => Every day, 6,000 girls from the Horn of Africa to sub-Saharan nations are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). With fierce determination and deep love for their communities, brave African activists are leading a formidable, fearless grassroots movement to end 5,000 years of FGM. An insightful look at the frontlines of a quiet revolution taking the continent by storm, this extraordinarily powerful film is one of the first to focus on African solutions to FGM. 

Beautifully directed by Emmy Award® winner Paula Heredia and produced by Equality Now, AFRICA RISING travels through remote villages in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Somalia and Tanzania. Weaving together dynamic footage and the poignant stories of girls personally affected by FGM, it shows how African women and men are putting an end to this human rights violation. Convincing circumcisers to lay down their knives, engaging the police to implement the law, and honing leadership skills in girls, these determined activists have been working tirelessly for years to conceptualize their campaign. AFRICA RISING paints an intimate portrait of the broadly-based but little-known anti-FGM movement and shows that courageous, creative and resourceful individuals can change the course of history.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/africa-rising/AfricaRising_HiRes3.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 444
    [title] => Fighting the Silence
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/fighting-the-silence
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/fighting-the-silence/320x-cbe_FightingSilence_hires5.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2007
    [text] => The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s seven year war was the deadliest ever recorded in Africa. During that time, more than 80,000 women and girls were raped.  Only now that the country is formally at peace are the consequences of the brutality becoming truly visible. Rape is slowly seeping into everyday life.  

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. 

Girls and women survivors tell of the brutality they experienced. Married couples openly talk about the pain they endure. Husbands talk of the pressures that led them to abandon their wives and why they agreed to take them back. A father explains why he has given up on his daughter’s future and how he wishes he could afford to take her rapist to court. Soldiers and policemen share their (shocking) views about why rape continues to flourish despite the war having officially ended four years ago.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/fighting-the-silence/cbe_FightingSilence_hires5.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 445
    [title] => Pushing the Elephant
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/pushing-the-elephant
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/pushing-the-elephant/320x-cbe_pushele_hires1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2010
    [text] => 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.

When war came to Rose’s village, she was separated from her five-year-old daughter, Nangabire. Rose managed to escape with nine of her ten children and was eventually resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Over a decade later, mother and daughter are reunited in the US where they must face the past and build a new future. As mother and daughter get to know one another, they must come to terms with a painful past, and define what it means to be a survivor, a woman, a refugee and an American.

Through this intimate family portrait unfolding against the wider drama of war, we explore the long-term and often hidden effects of war on women and families, particularly those in traditional societies—financial despair, increased susceptibility to rape, and social ostracism. PUSHING THE ELEPHANT captures 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.

This is a powerful first-person portrait of an indomitable woman dedicated to peace and the healing power of forgiveness. A moving, joyful and hopeful chronicle of refugee experience and acculturation in the U.S. today, PUSHING THE ELEPHANT is also an insightful portrait of the changing face of immigration in our increasingly diverse society.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/pushing-the-elephant/cbe_pushele_hires1.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 456
    [title] => Umoja
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/umoja
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/umoja/320x-cbe_umoja_hires.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2010
    [text] => 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. 

Learning of their plight, Rebecca Lolosoli, a tireless women’s rights advocate, helps the banished women establish a new village, Umoja, on an unoccupied field in the grass­lands. No men are allowed. Soon the women turn their fate around, launching a handicrafts business targeting the tourist trade. Their success and increasing fame incurs the men’s jealousy and wrath, setting off an unusual, occasionally hilarious, gender war. But in this award-winning documentary, which deftly blends fast-paced reportage with serious social critique, women who have reclaimed their lives clearly emerge the victors.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/umoja/cbe_umoja_hires.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 460
    [title] => Duhozanye: A Rwandan Village of Widows
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/duhozanye-a-rwandan-village-of-widows
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/duhozanye-a-rwandan-village-of-widows/320x-duhozanya_hires1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2011
    [text] => 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. Featuring first-person accounts by Daphrose and other Duhozanye widows, the film shows association members helping women victims of rape and HIV/AIDS, running small businesses and classes in gender violence prevention, and taking part in national reconciliation through open-air people’s courts where they can face, and often forgive, their loved ones’ killers.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/duhozanye-a-rwandan-village-of-widows/duhozanya_hires1.jpg
)

Array
(
    [id] => 461
    [title] => Sarabah
    [link] => stdClass Object
        (
            [url] => https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/sarabah
            [title] => more
        )

    [image_thumb] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/sarabah/320x-saraba_hires1.png
    [created_at] => Array
        (
        )

    [year_released] => 2011
    [text] => 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.
    [image] => https://www.wmm.com/storage/films/sarabah/saraba_hires1.jpg
)