GRACELAND GIRLS (28MIN, KENYA)
DIRECTOR: JORDAN SALVATORIELLO
WORLD PREMIERE
Educating its adolescent girls has proven to be the cornerstone of Kenyan development, yet so many are denied equal access to education, social and economic equality and respect. The half-hour documentary Graceland Girls provides an intimate look at how the high school students at Graceland Girls School in central Kenya have, so far, defied the odds. Using a combination of video and digital photographs - taken by both the subjects and the filmmaker - the girls express the beauty and pressures of empowered Kenyan girlhood and share their personal struggles to find hope for a better future.
Trailer: http://vimeo.com/43142691
IT'S A GIRL THING: MKA, TWEEN QUEENS AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF GIRLHOOD (59MIN, USA)
DIRECTOR: SHANNON SILVA
WORLD PREMIERE
Using expert interviews, historical research, animated reenactments and found footage, this feature length documentary looks closely, and critically, at the tween markets evolution and the role of Dualstar (Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's company) in the markets explosion. Interviews with Jean Kilbourne, Gail Dines, Sharon Lamb, Terrill Bravender, Lisa Machoian, Diane Levin, Susan Linn, plus various mothers, teachers, tweens and MKA fans highlight the impact Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen have had on the girls tween market since they first hit the scene in 1987.
THE DIRECTOR (1MIN, USA)
DIRECTOR: DESTRI MARTINO
CHICAGO PREMIERE
One director attempts to make a statement. In a dress.
