It's been a big year.
After 20 years as an idea and 8 years in the making, our feature documentary Warrior Women premiered at the Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada in April 2018. The film was well received by an enthusiastic & passionate audience. Once Madonna Thunder Hawk & Marcella Gilbert walked on stage, the crowd erupted and leaped to their feet for the first (of many) standing ovations! The energy was electrifying and we could not have asked for a better World Premiere!
Since Hot Docs, Warrior Women has been busy taking the world by storm. We have screened at the Seattle International Film Festival, San Francisco Green Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, Lumbee Film Festival, AIM West International Film Festival, South Dakota Homelands Premiere, Calgary International Film Festival, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Alexander Valley Film Festival (closing night), Milwaukee International Film Festival, California American Indian and Indigenous Film Festival, San Francisco American Indian Film Festival, Film Loft Cinema Film Festival, Los Angeles SKINS, Guelph International Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, Free State Film Festival, Tuscon Film Festival, and the Skábmagovat Film festival in Finland.
Each audience brought different energy, understanding & insight to the theatres. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response and generous donations.
We are honored to have been awarded “Best Documentary” at the Los Angeles SKINS Fest, California’s American Indian & Indigenous Film Festival, and the San Francisco American Indian Film Festival.
We are looking forward to our upcoming festivals - the All Available Light Film Festival in Yukon Territory, Canada, the Victoria Film Festival in British Columbia, Canada, Montana’s Big Sky Film Festival, Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, Durango Independent Film Festival, Vancouver International Women in Film Festival & Vision Maker Film Festival in Nebraska. See your Screenings and Events page to see if there is a screening near you and contact us at warriorwomenfilm@gmail.com to see if we can bring it to your community!
An important highlight was bringing the film home and screening it for Oceti Sakowin in Rapid City, South Dakota with the support of VisionMaker Media. Madonna & Marcella took this opportunity to honor the local Warrior Women who have been fighting for their communities. This gathering is the first of 200 for which the Warrior Women Project is raising impact funding to convene in order to strengthen, support, and highlight the critical leadership of Indigenous women.
Pictured are Jackie Dunn, Josephine Thunder Shield, Karen Little Wounded, Joye Braun, Phyllis Bald Eagle, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Jean Roach, Olowan Martinez, Carla Lisa Cheyenne, Carla Rae Marshall, and Lilias Jones Jarding.
The Warrior Women team has been thoroughly enjoying the festival tour and we attempting to travel to as many film festivals & screenings as possible, not only to support the film but also to be able to engage with the audiences and local activist community both indigenous and allies! Our goal is to focus the film’s engagement strategy on revitalizing the role women play in building and maintaining strong, impenetrable Native societies.
In addition to festivals, Madonna & Marcella were invited to the Netherlands to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the NETHERLANDS ASSOCIATION FOR NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS (NANAI) Foundation.
Madonna went to honor the life of the founder and her long time comrade Maria van Kints - with whom she is pictured with in Rotterdam in 1983 in the below right photo. Maria and NANAI were key figures in the growth of the international indigenous movement at the United Nations in the 1980s.
2019 is proving to be even more exciting with more invitations coming in and with our goal of having as many eyes and minds as possible be influenced or changed by the experience of Warrior Women.
The has been receiving praise from media outlets such as POV Magazine, Color Lines, Women and Hollywood, Black Girl Nerds, Lakota Country Times, and de Volkskrant.