The Story

The Film:

Female -- The World War on Women (working title) is a documentary film addressing the various forms of violence and abuse suffered by women on every continent around the globe. While exploring personal stories illustrating an array of issues such as the feminization of poverty, gendercide, female genital mutilation, child marriage, and the objectification and exploitation of women, experts seek to identify the cultural mindsets and traditions that result in such human rights violations while activists offer hope of change through viable solutions.

The Back Story

In the recent groundbreaking documentary film, It’s a Girl, the world was introduced to gendercide, the global female genocide that has resulted in nearly 200 million ‘missing’ women in the world today– killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl reveals the issue and asks why this is happening and why so little is being done to save girls and women.

Through It’s a Girl, Director Evan Grae Davis succeeded in leveraging the power of documentary storytelling to engage nearly half a million people to take action to end gendercide in India and China, and countless more were made aware of this major global human rights violation.

It's a Girl has screened in hundreds of locations in over 20 countries, including colleges and universities, film festivals and symposiums, and most notably, in the European and British Parliaments and on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. 

It’s a Girl has been featured in countless interviews, articles, and reviews of major media outlets such as BBC Radio, NPR, New Internationalist, Ms. Magazine, World Magazine, The Atlantic, Voice of America, Christianity Today, Emirates Woman Magazine, CBC Radio, IndieWire, Movie Guide, Frontpage Magazine, The Washington Times and many more.

Evan Grae Davis has taken his film and the issue of gendercide to some of the largest TEDx stages in South Asia and the U.S., challenging leaders and influencers from all over the world to take action to end gendercide – one of the most significant human rights issues of our time and the greatest form of violence against women in the world today.

See the It's a Girl trailer here:

It's a Girl is a huge success, and now it's time to think about what's next!

Introducing a second, and equally powerful, documentary film project taking the It's a Girl cause to the next level!

As the It’s a Girl action and screening campaign continues to gain momentum, and with the recent successful release of It’s a Girl on DVD and iTunes, Evan Grae Davis is ready to take his mission to the next level with his next feature length documentary film: Female – The World War on Women.

The answer is misogyny: the hatred of women, or the belief that women are inferior to men. It comes in many forms, including social discrimination, physical abuse, legal discrimination, and the generalized objectification of women. Misogynistic cultures often give husbands and fathers full legal rights over their wives and daughters.

Misogyny can be found in every part of the world, where one out of three women will become a victim of violence in her lifetime. In many parts of the developing world, however, misogyny is even more deeply woven into the fabric of the family and social culture – making the violence inescapable.

Female – The World War on Women will explore this conspiracy of silence; this epidemic of criminal cultural entrenchment, from the most compelling angles, enlisting the help of some of the world’s leading authorities who will bring the issues into bold focus.

Some of the possible stories to be explored:

Feminization of Poverty

Poverty today has a woman's face. Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production. Two out of three people living in extreme poverty in the world today are women.

Female Feticide and Infanticide

More girls are killed in India and China each year than are born in the U.S. as a result of gendercide. And despite growing awareness about the plight of millions of girls being killed every year, the practice continues to increase. The cultural preference for sons, combined with the One Child Policy in China and dowry practices in India, has resulted in a female genocide that far outnumbers the lives lost in all of the major genocidal events of the 20^th Century combined.

Female Genital Mutilation

According to the World Health Organization, about 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation. In Africa, an estimated 101 million girls ten years old and above have suffered this brutal non-medical procedure believed to reduce a woman’s libido and ensure premarital virginity and marital fidelity. But the price paid by those who suffer this brutal practice is a lifetime of pain, infections, increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths and often infertility.

Early Marriage/Child Brides

It is estimated that as many as 100 million girls will be given as child brides in early marriage over the next decade. Child brides are the victims of cultural “norms” that turn a blind-eye to the unspeakable sexual exploitation and rape of little girls made legal through marriage. Neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers, these girls are at far greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence. With little access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.

Rape in War

Rape: The physical, social, mental and emotional weapon of war targeted at defenseless women and young girls.According to the United Nations, women can face devastating forms of sexual violence during times of war, which are sometimes deployed systematically to achieve military or political objectives.

Widows

One of the greatest untold stories of violence and abuse against women of our time is that of over 80 million women thrown away today in the brutal aftermath of their husbands’ deaths. Tossed out like an unwanted garment, they are left to fend for themselves in the face of strong social stigmas that ensure they will not find work or a friendly hand up. Left with few options, they often must resort to prostitution or begging. Subjected to social isolation, rape or murder, forced into prostitution or remarriage, victims of property theft and all kinds of physical and psychological abuse, hope is lost and their lives become a daily hell.

What is the answer?

Woven throughout stories that capture the greatest forms of violence against women in the world today, the narrative of activists and experts will explore the hope for change seen in the inspirational stories of those who are leading the way to greater rights and freedoms for women within their own cultures, who are inspiring movements demanding equality and justice.

We’ll also examine movements of the past that have been successful in winning equality and justice, like the International Suffrage movement and the women’s liberation and civil rights movement here in the US. What made those movements successful and where can we find and support similar movements in critical regions of the world today?

Why a Documentary?

Evan Grae Davis’ passion as a filmmaker is to leverage the power of documentary storytelling to engage the heart of the viewer in the critical issues of our time. A documentary film has the ability to educate and mobilize grassroots action, allowing those who are passionate about the issue to host screenings in their community. Through a worldwide action and screening campaign, then through DVD, digital distribution, television broadcast and educational use, a documentary film can bring important issues like gendercide and violence against women to the world stage unlike anything else.

Where’s the Money Going?

The goal of the films Evan Grae Davis creates is to educate and mobilize a broad audience to take action and collaborate with grassroots partner organizations working to restore dignity and justice to those featured in his films. Evan creates his films to leave one dominating question in the minds of the viewer: What can I do to help?

As a result, Evan’s distribution model is designed for impact over profit. Funding his films through donations frees Evan from the profit motive and empowers him to focus on getting the message and issue in front of as many people as possible with the hope of creating a grassroots movement.

Here’s how your money will be spent: 

Why $30,000/ Why $300,000?

$30,000 will fund the development and pre-production, getting us well into the production phases of the film, allowing us to conduct the research, identify key stories, travel and capture some preliminary footage and put together a trailer and other tools we will need to raise the remaining funding for post production and distribution.

$300,000 is the overall budget for the film and is our ultimate fundraising goal. A film like this, that captures a global human rights issue, requires travel to multiple countries. Included in this budget are research, travel, translation and transcription, equipment costs, editing, art and design, original music, licensing footage, color correction and sound sweetening, and marketing and distribution.

Our experienced team has learned how to produce a high-quality product on an economically reasonable budget and will begin work on this film immediately with the goal of releasing the film in the fall of 2015.

What do I Get Out of This?

Besides the satisfaction of knowing you helped create a grassroots movement restoring justice to millions of women suffering unimaginable wrongs throughout the world today, you’ll get some awesome rewards! Listed in the right column of this page are a number of gifts we would love to give you to show our gratitude for your generous support for this project.

How Can I Help?

Glad you asked! Crowdfunding campaigns live and die by the extent to which they are shared with others. After you've made a pledge, here are a few things you can do to spread the word and keep the momentum going:

•  Use the SHARE buttons (below the video) to share this campaign on Facebook and/or Twitter (be sure to use #?).

•  Use the EMBED button (below the video) to embed our Indiegogo video on your blog, Facebook, etc.

•  Email friends, family and co-workers about this campaign.

•  Do all of the above again throughout the duration of the campaign.

•  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the most up-to-date news & promotions regarding the campaign.

•  And, we'd love to hear from you! Leave us a message and keep the conversation going on our social networks.

Lastly, thank you. This film will not be possible without you.

Risks and Challenges:

This film will get made. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. I believe that.

Justice matters. Compassion matters. The human rights of these women should matter. You matter. This is your chance to do something. Join us. We're an experienced team and know what it takes bring this film to the marketplace and achieve maximum exposure. That said, there are many risks associated with documentary filmmaking and things may take longer than expected. Documentary filmmaking is a very unpredictable and fluid process during which the scope and story continually evolve. It may take longer than we estimate to obtain the necessary footage we're seeking (7-8 months). It may take longer than we estimate to assemble the project together (6-8 months) and deliver a final cut to our backers. These are the challenges and realities of independent filmmaking today. It would be AMAZING to raise our entire budget of $300,000 with your generous support here on Indiegogo; nevertheless we are committed to pursuing all available funding options to ensure this important film gets made. We believe in this project because we believe in the dignity of women, and we are willing to go to the mat to right this wrong and do what we can to restore value and equality to women worldwide. Will you help us?