Live Chat with Geena Davis on Women and Girls Lead

On Wednesday, May 23 at 3pm CT / 4pm ET — Women and Girls Lead advocate and Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis will participate in a live social screening and chat about women’s empowerment. Nashville Public Television will produce the event, which will stream the War Redefined (narrated by Davis), as episode from the acclaimed series Women War and Peace. Follow this link to participate in Wednesday’s event with Geena Davis.

The capstone of PBS’s Women, War & Peace — War Redefined challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making.
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Tags: Geena Davis, live chat, social screening, war redefined, women and girls lead, women war and peace, women's empowerment

Women and Girls Lead Says: Man Up!

The Man Up Campaign — a global effort activating young women and men to stop violence against women and girls — is presenting a film festival on Saturday, December 3 at 4 PM at Maysles Cinema in New York. The day-long festival will include titles from ITVS’s Women and Girls Lead Campaign, including the PBS series Women, War, and Peace.

The Man Up Campaign is dedicated to mobilizing young people and strengthening their in-country programs. The initiative formally launched during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, bringing together a diverse group of up to 100 women and men (ages 18 to 30) from 25 countries. Occurring at the University of Johannesburg, this international forum was the first of its kind to develop capacity and technical expertise among young people of both genders, who are committed to stopping violence against women and girls.

Find a complete rundown of Saturday’s Man Up Film Festival series schedule after the jump.

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Tags: man up, New York City, women and girls lead, women's empowerment

World Mourns Passing of Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize, passed away while having treatment for ovarian cancer on Monday.

Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize, passed away on Monday while having treatment for ovarian cancer. Maathai was the founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging women and families to plant trees.

She was recently the focus of the Independent Lens documentary Taking Root: The Story of Wangari Maathai and was featured in DIRT! The Movie. Maathai will be remembered for her work in women’s rights, democracy, and the environment.

Watch the trailer for Taking Root: The Story of Wangari Maathai >>
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Tags: activism, Africa, environment, international, Kenya, women's empowerment, women's rights

How to Raise a Feminist Baby Boy

ITVS Education Manager Annelise Wunderlich decides she’s not afraid of teaching her son the F-word.

Annelise Wunderlich with her eight-month old baby boy Tiago.

When I told my husband about the title of this post, he raised a skeptical eyebrow. Really? Feminist? What did I mean by that, exactly? I think he envisioned me forcing our eight-month old son, Tiago, to wear pink leggings, read Betty Friedan before bed, and sing along to Ani DiFranco in the car. Was I proposing that we raise Tiago to feel guilty about his masculinity, or to resist patriarchy at the playground? Not that my husband isn’t a big supporter of women, but couldn’t we just let the baby learn how to chew first? Have I been in Northern California too long?
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Tags: ani difranco, beyonce, feminism, women and girls lead, women's empowerment

Geena Davis Expects Women and Girls to Lead

Oscar-winning Actor Geena Davis helped launch ITVS’ Women and Girls Lead campaign at the PBS Annual meeting in Orlando, FL. Here, Davis describes why she has so much faith in the power of public media and the power of women and girls.

During the conference, Davis discussed her own work on gender discrimination in media, as well as ITVS’ multi-year initiative, aimed at supporting women and girls’ leadership through independent films. Find out more at http://www.itvs.org/women-and-girls-lead

Tags: documentary, Geena Davis, ITVS, PBS, PBS Annual Meeting, women and girls lead, women's empowerment, women's leadership

Women and Girls Lead Takes Off at PBS Annual Meeting

Women and Girls Lead, the multi-year public media campaign to amplify the voices of women and girls worldwide, officially lifted off Thursday. The campaign was launched during a breakfast hosted by ITVS and CPB during this week’s PBS Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis and CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison broke the champagne bottle across the proverbial bow with their stirring opening remarks. Thursday’s event was stacked with even more special guests, including a troop from Girl Scouts of the USA. Check out some video highlights from the event below and learn more about Women and Girls Lead.

Tags: CPB, Geena Davis, ITVS, Patricia Harrison, PBS Annual Meeting, women and girls lead, women's empowerment, women's leadership

ITVS Announces Funding and Production of Half the Sky for Primetime PBS Broadcast

Based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the series will premiere as a special presentation on Independent Lens in Fall 2012. The project is a cornerstone of the recently announced Women and Girls Lead campaign.

ITVS announced today that it, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has made a significant investment in Half The Sky, a primetime television special and multi-platform project based on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s widely acclaimed book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
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Tags: Africa, half the sky, nicholas kristof, sheryl wudunn, the new york times, women and girls lead, women's empowerment, women's leadership

Celebrating Women’s History Month in Film

For 20 years ITVS has been responsible for showcasing innovative and eye-opening programming focusing on the shared and unique experiences of women worldwide.

Our documentaries have covered everything from glass-ceiling-shattering female heads of state to the grassroots movements in developing nations led by women who refused to accept no for an answer.

Visit our new Women’s History Month page and explore content that represent a cross-section of our best programming about remarkable women, including some great resources for educators to use in their classrooms.

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Tags: international, PBS, pbs newshour, women, women's empowerment, Women's History

The Congo and Beyond: Live Chat on Empowering Women

On Tuesday, March 8 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT, PBS NewsHour will team up with ITVS and Independent Lens to present a panel discussion on violence against women in the Congo and beyond.

Set on the 100th anniversary of  International Women’s Day, the online discussion will use news reports and footage from the upcoming Independent Lens documentary Pushing the Elephant to shed light on the effects of war on women and families.
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Tags: amnesty international, Independent Lens, International Women's Day, live chat, pbs newshour, pushing the elphant, women's empowerment

From Low Budget to Gold Statuette

ITVS-funded Girls on the Wall recently picked up an Emmy

Filmmaker Heather Ross recently picked up an Emmy for her film Girls on the Wall, which was a recipient of ITVS’s Open Call. Ross fills in the picture for BTB on the journey that led to the award.

Six years ago, I moved to a faraway city and started shooting a documentary with the naïve idea that the rest of the pieces would fall into place. The film, Girls on the Wall, followed a group of teenage girls in prison as they took on an unlikely task — writing and staging a musical, using their lives and their crimes as the story.

It ended up taking about five years to make, and I had to rely on almost everyone I knew, and many I didn’t, to get it out into the world. Last weekend, this little film got a big shot in the arm: it won an Emmy.
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Tags: Emmy, girls on the wall, ITVS, Open Call, women's empowerment