Six Waltham Forest women star in film to screen locally on International Women’s day

To celebrate International Women's Day, the award winning education charity WORLDwrite is set to screen their latest feature-length documentary film, Women: a success story – a liberating tale for a new generation.

Women: a success story documents the great advances of the past 100 years and celebrates women as equals in the West today. Forged as a timeline and interwoven with archive, forty women give us a fresh perspective, tell us we have nothing to fear and can do anything. From across the generations, they share their life stories, what they overcame and what’s changed. We learn of women in the cotton mills, life during the war, the 1984 miners’ strike, from outdoor loos, terry nappies and illegal abortions to pre-marital sex, freedom and making it in what was once a man’s world. The film urges us to revel in our progress and do it with men not against them.

Peppered with great individual stories, the film includes six women from Waltham Forest. They are: Ginny Hume, who has spent 20 years running and commissioning services for older people in Inner London local authorities and her daughter Isabel Hume, a history of art student, Jane Sandeman, working mum, a charity finance Director and convenor of the Academy of Ideas Parents Forum, Sally Millard who works as a Head of Finance in London and has two teenagers, Alison Small, who is CEO of the Production Guild of Great Britain and her daughter Millie Small, a school student interested in the performing arts and understanding the world around her.

Ceri Dingle, WORLDwrite and the film’s director, said: "We're thrilled to be screening the film in the borough on International Women's Day, as these six inspiring women tell such great stories and have so many wise words to share. We are indebted to them for their contribution to the film. They are articulate, funny, compassionate and freedom loving, they epitomise robust women who believe everything is possible and see men as allies not enemies.”

Launched at the Battle of Ideas festival at the Barbican and at the Castle Cinema in Hackney at the end of last year, the film has received fabulous feedback from those who have seen it:
“What an inspiring and uplifting film! Women: a success story tells the story of modern feminism through the voices of women who lived through it. Their accounts remind us how restricted women were in the past but also the way in which so many women developed the confidence to challenge the status quo. Witty, intelligent and thoughtful, the interviewees talk openly about their experiences of relationships, work and politics. Most interesting is their empathy for the men in their lives and the concern about certain aspects of contemporary feminism. A documentary rich in wisdom and insight – everyone interested in feminism ought to watch it.” Munira Mirza, director of HENI talks and former London deputy mayor for Education and Culture

An excellent full review of the film entitled You Go, Girlfriends by Andrew Collins, film editor of the Radio Times is available online.

The film, which was crowd funded and assisted by a National Lottery Heritage Fund small grant, was a collective effort by over 100 volunteers. Having been trained from scratch by WORLDwrite and its Citizen TV station WORLDbytes to shoot, research and present, volunteers have been the backbone of this ambitious production.

The screening at Leytonstone Library will be followed by a Q&A with director Ceri Dingle and film contributor Jane Sandeman.