FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


PEACE BY PEACE: WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES
A feature-length documentary by PEACE X PEACE
celebrating the work of women peace-builders around the world

November 1, 2003: Women on the Frontlines, a global documentary more than a year in the making, was viewed in a special preview showing at the Gather The Women Congress: Weaving a World that Works, held October 17-19 in San Francisco. Produced by GTW Congress co-sponsor PEACE X PEACE, the film reveals directly and intimately the unheralded work of women reweaving peace and healing their cultures after devastation in Afghanistan, Argentina, Burundi, Bosnia, and the US.

To rebuild cultures after the breakage of violent conflict takes work. Peace takes work; and it is women who are doing the on-the-ground work of building peace by healing communities and reweaving cultures. PEACE BY PEACE: Women on the Frontlines documents that work, which is often ignored or taken for granted and reveals it as the primary force for peace in the world today.

No matter the devastation or the odds, women remain defiantly resilience and committed to building a world in which they, their families, and their culture not only survive but thrive. PEACE X PEACE has filmed in five nations - Hutu and Tutsi women working together to operate a peace radio station in Burundi, former underground teachers educating women and children in Afghanistan, community builders providing micro-credit loans to women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, female leaders of the unemployed masses promoting participatory democracy in Argentina, and women who lost family September 11 leading the search for peace in the United States.

These women’s struggles may differ, but the way they organize ­ following circle principles ­ are the same; and the questions are universal: What makes women embrace peace, not violence, in the face of shattering personal crises? How can women be empowered to affect a shift towards peace on a global scale? Why are women linked together in groups of peers so effective?

Woven through the film is the wisdom of the wise women of the PEACE X PEACE Circle of Advisors, including interviews with Jean Shinoda Bolen on circles and the Feminine Principle, Barbara Marx Hubbard on the Internet and participatory democracy, Isabel Allende on how women organize during cultural crisis, Susan Collin Marks on women being the primary force in healing cultures, and Azizah al-Hibri on “adalah,” restorative justice. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, speaks on the world situation for women now, and how women can be empowered, especially at the peace table.

The documentary is currently being considered by PBS for primetime broadcast early 2004; and UNIFEM is in process for a gala screening of PEACE BY PEACE: Women on the Frontlines at the United Nations for the 191 member states and the general public late fall.

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CONTACT:

Peace X Peace
2086 Hunters Crest Way
Vienna, Virginia 22181 USA
www.peacexpeace.org

703-391-5626

Patricia Smith Melton
Director, Peace x Peace
Email: patricia@peacexpeace.org

Jenny Town
Public Relations Manager
PEACE X PEACE
703.869.2249
jtown@peacexpeace.org

 


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