On Thursday, September 29, 6:30 PM CT, ITVS Community Cinema, Ladies Home Journal, THIRTEEN, and Fork Films will present an exclusive online screening of Women War & Peace on ITVS’s Livestream channel in advance of its television premiere on PBS.

The screening will be followed by an online panel discussion with producer Abigail E. Disney and director Gini Reticker. Online participants will receive an opportunity to ask questions and discuss their reactions to the selected scenes with the filmmakers to learn how women, despite suffering unprecedented casualties, are simultaneously emerging as critical partners in brokering peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.

The half hour online screening will feature Women, War & Peace Episode 3: Peace Unveiled. When the U.S. troop surge was announced in late 2009, women in Afghanistan knew that the ground was being laid for peace talks with the Taliban. Peace Unveiled follows three women who immediately began to organize to make sure that women’s rights don’t get traded away in the deal. Narrated by Tilda Swinton, Peace Unveiled premieres October 25, 2011 at 10 PM ET on PBS.

Women, War & Peace is the first broadcast of Women and Girls Lead, a three-year public media initiative designed to focus, educate, and connect women, girls, and their allies across the globe to address the challenges of the 21st century. Filmed in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Colombia, and Liberia; with narration by actors Matt Damon, Geena Davis, Tilda Swinton and Alfre Woodard; Women, War & Peace premieres Tuesdays, October 11, 18, 25 and November 1 and 8 at 10 PM ET on PBS (check local listings).

Women, War & Peace is a co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films in association with WNET and ITVS.

ITVS President and CEO Sally Jo Fifer announces the Women and Girls Lead campaign — a major public media initiative that uses independent films to focus, educate, and connect audiences in support of women and girl’s leadership and development around the world.

It’s no secret that the competitive sea in which ITVS and independent filmmakers paddle is not getting any calmer.  Over the last year, more than 1,000 proposals came to us for funding.  The Sundance Film Festival received 841 documentary submissions.  Public broadcasting is grappling with marketplace and demographic challenges. New metrics and “theory of change” frameworks have shifted foundations’ approaches to individual films. The public clicks like crazy between 120 television channels and 300 million websites vying for their attention — and that same public flunks miserably at any basic test of civic knowledge.

Yet some favorable winds and currents for independent filmmakers are popping up within the storm.  Social media and crowd-funding are formidable tools for many DIY efforts.  Engagement networks have created new funding and promotion partners in organizations and communities that value media.  No less a commercial titan than Oprah herself has carved out new television real estate for documentaries.  And independent champions like Chicken and Egg, Women Make Movies, The Fledgling Fund, and so many others continue their ongoing invaluable support for filmmakers.

Sally Jo Fifer, President & CEO of ITVS

Over the last decade of technological change, ITVS too has sought out these currents, working to serve filmmakers, public television, and the public — with more funding, more programs, and more ways to find and engage viewers. The creation of Independent Lens brought in 22-27 new broadcast slots for independents.  Amid globalization and a zeitgeist for cultural exchange, ITVS International funded international programs and took the work of U.S. indies abroad. IndiesLab helped open doors and set fair terms at iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, and beyond; Global Voices opened a second or third window for older programs; the reboot of Community Cinema alongside social media opened 100 markets where local partners and stations come together around the power of independent film; FUTURESTATES and Project 360 created opportunities for makers focused on new media.

Our newest initiative, Women and Girls Lead, represents another current, one that brings together many of the last decade’s opportunities and builds on our work around powerful storytelling.  A multiyear initiative to focus, educate, and connect citizens worldwide — Women and Girls Lead provides a frame to highlight 50 compelling documentaries, both premieres and archive selections.  These documentaries represent a groundswell of stories about the leadership of women and girls facing tremendous challenges.

For public television and the public we serve, this effort will stand beside system-wide efforts like the American Graduate initiative, which raises awareness of the high school dropout crisis, and the mortgage town halls, using the power of media to start and sustain conversations around a widely shared set of issues. Details will emerge in the coming weeks on how we will do this work, with which partners and films, and with what goals.  What is more important, right now, is to make clear what we believe this initiative can do for filmmakers in the 21^st century marketplace.

First, Women and Girls Lead will help bring back to the limelight some “evergreen” films that are as relevant today as the day they premiered, finding new audiences for work online, through live engagement, and even rebroadcasts.  There will also be valuable cross-promotion, cross-distribution, and cross-engagement opportunities for films linked and grouped together.  Pulling together independent work as a content block has been critical to claiming real estate in the past; it’s worked with buckets like P.O.V., Independent Lens, and even online with IndiesLab.

Now, technology, and opportunity have gelled to connect the dots that too often go unconnected.  Most importantly, we believe Women and Girls Lead as a model will provide an undeniable case for the social value of documentary film — not just for the occasional documentary “blockbuster” but for the whole collective of independent work that thousands of filmmakers do on every important issue facing civil society here and abroad, with each film a contributor to long-term conversations that benefit all.

Read more about the Women and Girls Lead campaign in Monday’s edition of The New York Times

Please join in via chat or by using the Twitter hashtag #magd. How do you think the media is doing in helping divergent cultures understand and empathize with one another? Is technology delivering on its promise to democratize media in a true sense? What could we be doing better?

Dive in and be heard:

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You’ll able to engage panelists through a live chat and Twitter (#magd). We encourage you to take part! Sign up and find full details of the event at www.usip.org.

The summit, Seizing the Moment: Media and Peacebuilding, will be moderated by NPR’s Michel Martin, host of the acclaimed program Tell Me More, and will bring together more than 20 thought leaders, CEOs, media makers, and policy gurus to tackle the tough questions around leveraging today’s global media to facilitate conflict resolution and contribute to the expansion of peace.

The summit will present a series of three discussions (The New News:  Media at the Crossroads, Storytelling 2.0: Keeping it Real,Opening Minds, and Changing Hearts, and Next Generation Peacebuilders) alongside select content from new documentaries coming to PBS and other outlets, including the Academy® Award-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America and Project Kashmir airing on Independent Lens on May 18th.

The day’s panelists include:

• Jared Cohen—Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State
• Patricia Harrison—President and CEO, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Marvin Kalb—Veteran Broadcaster and Visiting Expert, USIP
• Riz Khan—Senior  News Anchor, Al Jazeera English
• Gary Knell—President and CEO, Sesame Workshop
• Mir Ibrahim Rahman—CEO, Geo TV Pakistan

Please tune in and add your voice to this important conversation.