USA for UNFPA to sponsor the 2019 Family of Woman Film Festival
The Family of Woman Film Festival, February 26 to March 3, 2019, is pleased to announce that USA for UNFPA (the United Nations reproductive health and right agency) will return as the Festival sponsor in 2019. The Festival was initiated in 2008 to raise awareness and support of UNFPA, the United Nations agency for reproductive health and rights. UNFPA is on the ground in over 155 countries— home to more than 80 percent of the world’s population. In the past two years, UNFPA has supported 8.2 million pregnancies and deliveries, attended by 23,500 UNFPA supported midwives. Modern contraceptives provided by UNFPA benefit 20 million women each year. It also is the largest agency in the world providing HIV/AIDS education and prevention. In addition, UNFPA works to prevent gender-based violence, which affects 1 in 3 women and for the abandonment of female genital mutilation, which harms 3 million girls annually.
“It is wonderful to return to our roots,” said Festival Founder and Director, Peggy Elliott Goldwyn. “I first witnessed the vital work of UNFPA when I visited a rural clinic in Uganda quite a few years ago. In partnership with The Muslim Council of Uganda, UNFPA was providing midwife training, prenatal care and HIV/AIDs detection and prevention. Such strategic partnerships allow them to continue to help women around the world in the face of increasing need and limited resources.”
The Family of Woman Film Festival is also announcing the theme of the 12th annual Festival, “Women Still Waiting for Change.”
“Since The Family of Woman Film Festival began,” Goldwyn said, “Awareness has grown in the U.S. about the obstacles women face in their lives-including in our own country-and movement toward removing many of these obstacles has also continued to grow. For some women, however, change has been slow to come. We recognize this with this year’s festival theme, and our films for 2019 will remind us that we must remain vigilant in the quest for equality for all.”
Further details of the 2019 Family of Woman Film Festival will be announced in the fall, with the full schedule of films revealed in December.
Each year the Family of Woman Film Festival presents five feature documentaries and dramatic films from around the world that highlight the status of women in different societies. Many of these films have been American premieres and have gone on to win major international awards. The Festival collaborates with many community organizations in the Wood River Valley in presenting films as well as introducing the community to key speakers on critical issues.
About the Family of Woman Film Festival:
The Family of Woman Film Festival was established in 2008 to raise awareness of the work of The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the leading global agency working to ensure that all women and girls have access to reproductive health care, education, and basic human rights. Five feature length documentaries and dramas from around the world are presented each year, focusing on the status of women in different cultures. Past Festival themes have focused on critical international issues, such as the effects of war on women and the role of women in the Arab Spring movement. Throughout the Festival week, filmmakers of award-winning films, the subjects of these films, and international speakers, engage with the community through free public lectures and programs at local schools. Family of Women films have also been presented at a satellite Festival in Chicago, as well as in Boise, through a partnership with Boise State University.