Award-winning production company, specializing in documentary films and television programming
A
car bomb exploded leaving little doubt who the intended target
was. Her children were threatened with kidnapping and her family
was harassed. Her arrival at meetings incited riots and police
were dispatched to silence her. Women turned against her. Why?
Charity Ngilu was running…to be the first woman President
of Kenya.
"Madam
President!" is a one-hour
documentary that explores the challenges and obstacles women
face when they decide to run for political office. From death
threats, kidnapping, and the political mine fields along the
campaign trail, we will examine the reasons women are risking
their lives to change their world. Through the training of the
International
Women's Democracy Center (IWDC) and Yale
University's Campaign School for Women, viewers gain
the esoteric knowledge of what it takes to successfully run
a political race.
Then, through exclusive behind the scene footage, they will
see those lessons enacted in real life on the campaign trail.
"Madam
President!" examines the psychological barriers
that traditionally keep most women from successfully running
for office, and analyzes the successes and failures of the women
trailblazerswho
led the way.
We
examine the research done by The
White House Project on the political, social, and cultural
perceptions that have limited the number of women entering the
corridors of power. The fallacy of those perceptions is exploded
through interviews with women presidents and prime ministers
from around the world and through the resounding endorsement
of their countrymen.
Through
The Council of Women World
Leaders, an exclusive
organization composed of 25 women presidents and prime ministers
from around the world, we will interview the women who have
broken the glass ceiling in the political arena. Through the
UN's Division for the
Advancement for Women, DAW, and UNIFEM,
we will gain insight into the widespread violations of women's
right when women are under-represented politically.
For years DAW has held worldwide conferences, issued mandates,
and gotten countries to agree to change laws that violate women's
rights. People and countries agree - but do little.
They have concluded that only
by electing women to positions of power will widespread changes
actually occur.
"Parliamentarians
as lawmakers can play a critical role in improving rights of
women - it is essential to increase the
number of women in parliaments."…
Dr. Yakin Erturk, former Director, Division for the Advancement
of Women. U.N.
