If you want to celebrate Women’s History Month by supporting stories about women bucking tradition and demanding equality and justice all over the globe, then WORLD Channel is here for you. The network will broadcast over 60 films about women fighting for themselves and other marginalized communities — including four new documentaries — next month, a press release announced. Three of those docs are directed by women.
“Empowering women to share unique stories, like surviving battlefields and seeking justice in the films premiering this month, is a mission here at WORLD throughout the year,” said WGBH and WORLD Channel General Manager Liz Cheng. “With a festival of films by and about women, we hope to highlight the courage and accomplishments of those making a profound difference around the globe.”
WORLD will kick off Women’s History Month with “Warrior Women” on March 4. Directed by Elizabeth Castle and Christina D. King, the doc centers on Madonna Thunder Hawk, a vocal leader of the Red Power Movement, and her decades-long pursuit of indigenous and women’s rights.
The other documentaries will air as part of the “Doc World” series, which explores cultures outside the U.S. Jenny Murray’s “¡Las Sandinistas!” (March 10) examines the role women played in Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution, and Sedika Mojadidi’s “Facing the Dragon” (March 17) follows two women on the front lines in Afghanistan as the U.S. withdraws forces and aid and the Taliban returns to power. “Daze of Justice” (March 24) sees Cambodian-American women traveling to the killing fields of Cambodia and speaking for their lost loved ones before the UN Special Tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge
Synopses for the documentaries and details on where to watch are below, courtesy of WORLD Channel. Go to WORLD’s website for more info on its Women’s History Month programming.
Warrior Women – in partnership with VisionMaker Media – February 25th Stream, (March 4th, 8pm ET on WORLD Channel)
Warrior Women is the untold story of American Indian Movement activists who fought for civil rights in the 1970s. Together they weathered some of the most turbulent battles for Native sovereignty in the modern era: Thunder Hawk as an activist and her daughter, Marcy, as a teenager growing up and sharing her mother with a movement that was bigger than either of them. Now, forty years later, Madonna is moving into the twilight of her life, fighting the inevitable slowing down. She constantly wonders to whom she will ‘pass the torch.’ Warrior Women unveils not only their perspective on history, but also their real-life activism far beyond news coverage that will influence generations to come.
Doc World: ¡Las Sandinistas! – in partnership with ITVS (March 10, 10pm ET on WORLD Channel)
¡Las Sandinistas! uncovers the nearly forgotten stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua’s 1979 Sandinista Revolution, as these same women continue to struggle for justice today against government suppression of women’s rights and democracy. The film is centered around the personal stories of Dora Maria Téllez, the young medical student who became a major Sandinista General, and four of her revolutionary allies. Together, these Nicaraguan women overcame traditional gender barriers and subverted stereotypes to lead rebel troops in 1979’s Sandinista Revolution, and then reshaped their country with landmark social reforms. ¡Las Sandinistas! exposes a watershed moment in history when thousands of women transformed their society’s definition of womanhood and leadership before facing renewed marginalization by their male peers after the wars ended. Now, 35 years later, amidst staggering levels of violence against women in Nicaragua, and while their stories are being erased from the history books, these same women brave the streets, once again, to lead popular movements for equality and democracy.
Doc World: Facing the Dragon – in partnership with ITVS (March 17, 10pm ET on WORLD Channel)
Facing the Dragon is the story of two unconventional Afghan women, Nilofar, a member of parliament and Shakila, a television journalist. As American forces and aid leave Afghanistan, the country’s fragile democracy and recent gains for women hang in the balance, forcing Nilofar and Shakila to choose between motherhood and ambition amidst threats to their lives and families.
Doc World: Daze of Justice – in partnership with the Center for Asian American Media (March 24, 10pm ET on WORLD Channel)
Daze of Justice is the intimate story of trailblazing Cambodian-American women who break decades of silence, abandoning the security of their American homes on a journey back to resurrect the memory of their murdered loved ones before the UN Special Tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge. The film follows Dr. Leakhena Nou’s research, taking the viewer beyond the Killing Fields. The women find the courage to remember their past; they generate a new vocabulary for reclaiming the past, while paving a path that offers the promise of redemption to future generations.
