IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA
(77 minutes) Liberia/USA
Directors: Daniel Junge, Siatta Scott Johnson
Producers: Henry Ansbacher, Jonathan Stack
Description:
After nearly two decades of brutal civil war, Liberia is a nation ready for change. On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated as the country's first elected female president and Africa's first freely elected female head of state. Despite massive support both in Liberia and abroad, Johnson Sirleaf must not only find ways to reform a corrupt authoritarian government saddled by astronomical debts, but must also confront opponents loyal to former President Charles Taylor-all without alienating her voter base. Since taking office, Johnson Sirleaf has appointed an unprecedented number of women to leadership positions in all areas of the Liberian government.
Biography:
Named by Filmmaker magazine as one of twenty-five up-and-coming filmmakers, Daniel Junge had his feature-length directorial debut with Chiefs, which aired on Independent Lens and won best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. He served as creative director for the Emmy Award-winning series Common Good, directing four of its segments. Junge received his BA from Colorado College and attended film school at New York University.
Siatta Scott Johnson was born in Liberia and raised in rural Grand Bassa County. Johnson earned her BA in mass communications from the University of Liberia after the school re-opened following the war. She has five years of experience as a reporter and producer at DCTV, one of Liberia's only broadcast TV stations, and is a founding member of Omuahtee Africa Media.
Henry Ansbacher is the founder of Just Media and has served as its executive director since 2000, producing more than twenty-five documentary shorts featuring social entrepreneurs, including the Emmy Award-winning series Common Good. Ansbacher received his BA from Colorado College and his MA in psychology from the University of Denver.
Jonathan Stack is an Emmy Award-winning and two-time Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker. In 1991, he founded the nonprofit Gabriel Films and has since produced more than seventy-five films for nearly all of the cable channels in the U.S. and many television partners abroad.
Contact Information:
Kristen Fitzpatrick
Women Make Movies
462 Broadway #500
New York, NY 10013
E-mail: ordersw@wmm.com
Web site: http://www.ironladiesofliberia.com
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