Girls Project - United States

A mix of documentary, shorts, and feature-length films, The Girls Project includes 25 titles that provide intimate and honest portraits of the struggles and triumphs of young women from a cross-cultural perspective. The films, which are available for purchase on the Girls Project website, are designed to introduce young women in the United States to their counterparts around the world, to encourage dialogue on a number of issues (sexuality, peer pressure, feminism, cultural identity, and body image), and to present a portrait of girlhood that is meant to be engaging, celebratory, and inspiring. To cite only one example, "Daring to Resist: Three Women Face the Holocaust" is a story of 3 teenage girls who joined the resistance movement against Hitler. Focussing on the girls' intelligence and resourcefulness, this 1-hour documentary broadens the meaning of "resistance" and explores the often-ignored contributions of women to this movement. Organisers say that it could be used in courses in civics, history, and social sciences.

In fact, WMM intend the films and videos in The Girls Project to serve as a resource for both classroom and community environments. One of their goals is to make the films and videos in the collection accessible to young women and men, as well as their parents, teachers and community leaders. To facilitate this process, they have created teaching modules with discussion tips and sample activities that are designed to enable young people to explore the themes in the series more in depth and relate them to their own lives. These study guides provide teachers and group leaders with ideas for their curriculum and outreach programmes and include resources for working with young women.

These films and accompanying resources are part of a strategy to provide access to experiences and viewpoints rarely offered in standard textbooks, allowing students the opportunity to understand past and present events from a global perspective. When presented to young people in after-school programmes, these films might also be used to facilitate communication between teens, parents, and youth advocates on difficult subject matters.

Girls.

Founded in 1972, WMM is a multicultural, multiracial, nonprofit media arts organisation that facilitates the production, promotion, distribution, and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women.