10 Films From The WVN Film Festival
And Their Social Impact Social Impact
With This Breath I Fly
2023 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Grand Prize Winner
With This Breath I Fly follows two courageous women as they fight for their freedom against a patriarchal Afghan society determined to keep them bound to tribal culture.
The film’s release led to an unprecedented pardon by 4th Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a call to review all moral crimes cases in the courts. It also helped push the Afghan parliament to pass the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) act, which (among other things) made raping one’s wife illegal.
Indebted to All Women
2022 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Grand Prize Winner
Indebted to All Women gives voice to women in El Salvador struggling to change one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. A few months after the film’s release, it was used as documentation in a case brought up to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, leading to the successful release of all the women featured in the film, and since then, more than 60 other women!
Belly of the Beast
2022 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Honorable Mention
The vast majority of Belly of the Beast viewers, including those that worked within the criminal legal system or toward its reform, were shocked to learn that forced sterilizations were taking place in women’s prisons.
Following the release of the film, media coverage of forced sterilizations in women’s prisons increased substantially. Finally, in July 2021, as a result of decades of work, the California legislature passed a bill that will provide compensation to victims of forced sterilizations.
Breaking the Silence
2014 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Documentary Short Winner
In Breaking the Silence, young Moroccan women address sexual harassment issues in Morocco by sharing personal stories, examining expert analyses, and presenting solutions. Since its release, the Gender and Development Committee has been using the film as part of a toolkit to discuss sexual harassment for social workers and the general population.
Among Us Women
2023 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Best First Time Filmmaker
This documentary follows young farmer Huluager Endeshaw, who is awaiting the birth of her fourth child. Hulu finds herself caught between modern and traditional systems of midwifery in her rural village of Megendi.
Two years after launching a campaign around the film, 240 moderators in ten Ethiopian regions were trained to guide community talks and an improved maternal and child care center was constructed in Megendi, offering a wider variety of choices in maternity care.
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Handful of Ash
2014 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Selected Film
In this documentary, Iraqi-Kurdish women and girls recall their traumatic experiences with genital mutilation, a practice that only persists where custom goes unquestioned and with detrimental consequence to the well being of an entire society. Using this film, relief organization WADI trained police officers, conducted midwife trainings, and successfully established the first female genital mutilation-free villages in northern Iraq, urging the government on implementation of the law.”
Sisters Rising
2021 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Grand Prize Winner
Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. 1 in 3 Native women report having been raped during her lifetime and 86% of the offenses are committed by non-Native men. This film follows six women who refuse to let this pattern of violence continue. In 2022, Congress amended a provision to recognize “special Tribal criminal jurisdiction” over an expanded list of crimes that including sexual violence and trafficking. Enacted by the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, it was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 15, 2022.
Defendant 5
2016 Women’s Voices Now Film Festival Best Documentary Short
Young Australian filmmaker Heidi Lee Douglas traveled to Tasmania to make a documentary about the destruction of the island’s ancient forests. Soon, logging giant Gunns Ltd. reacted to public pressure by suing Heidi and 19 others for $6.4 million. As the filmmakers fought the case, environment groups in Europe, Japan, and the United States raised awareness about the environmental certification of Gunn’s wood chips. Gunns dropped the case as a result
Destiny's Bay
WVN Film Collection Feature
In this film, Destiny Watford successfully organizes her community to prevent construction of the nation’s largest incinerator in a Baltimore neighborhood less than one mile from her high school.”
Schedule for Change
2022 Girls’ Voices Now Film
Schedule for Change centers on the disadvantages girls and non-gender conforming students face in education, told by students themselves, along with teacher perspectives…”
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