WINNERS NAMED IN 2024 WOMEN TRANSFORMING MEDIA AWARD

Dagascreenshot from film 

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Wendy Milette
Director The MY HERO International Film Festival
[email protected]

WINNERS NAMED IN 2024 WOMEN TRANSFORMING MEDIA AWARD

NOVEMBER 12 2024 – LAGUNA BEACH, CA - Eva Haller is a philanthropist, an activist, a MY HERO board member and a mentor to generations. She’s a Holocaust survivor who lost her older brother in the war and vowed to spend her life helping people to honor his memory. Many individuals and organizations have benefitted from that vow — Women for Women International, Asian Initiatives, Free the Children and the Jane Goodall Institute are only a few. 

Each year, Haller sponsors the Women Transforming Media Award (WTM) at The MY HERO International Film Festival. She established the award to inspire and support filmmakers whose work features women changemakers or women’s issues and has expanded the contest to include an award for students, from elementary school to college, as well as for professional filmmakers. 

Eva has chosen three winners in this year’s competition:

Daga

The documentary ‘Daga - A Woman’s Fight to Empower Girls in her Village’ directed by Fama Ndiaye of Alarba Film, Executive Producers: Sky Dylan-Robbins & Gabriel Diamond, has won the Eva Haller’s Women Transforming Media Award (WTM) and The Women’s Rights Award at the 20^th MY HERO International Film Festival.

The film focuses on Daga Baldé from southern Senegal. Daga is a local leader in her community who is a passionate advocate for girls’ and women’s education. Denied educational opportunities in her youth, she committed to expanding access after completing Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program in 2013, which deepened her understanding of her rights and community responsibilities. Her knowledge and confidence helped her secure roles as coordinator of her village’s community committee and first deputy mayor of Ndorda. Her story exemplifies Tostan’s mission to foster community-driven learning and leadership. This transformation was captured by the Skoll Foundation’s Solutions Storytelling Project.

Her Voice

Her Voice directed by Carletta S. Hurt and Sunnye C. Durham of IKAM Productions has been selected as a winner of an Eva Haller Women Transforming Media Award - Narrative, in the 20th MY HERO International Film Festival! Said Wendy Milette, Film Festival Director, “This powerful film shines a light on the remarkable heroism of Charlayne Hunter-Gault in a unique and creative way.”

In this short film, journalism student Gwendolyn struggles to choose a historical figure as the focus of a high school homework assignment. When her grandmother steps in to help, Gwendolyn takes an unexpected journey through history to meet Charlayne Hunter-Gault. As Gwendolyn learns about the adversities that Charlayne overcame, she discovers her family legacy at the University of Georgia and embraces her responsibility to continue the fight for equality.

Said Carletta: “The idea for the film came to me during COVID while sitting at home and reading stories/articles online. I stumbled upon a piece about the 60th anniversary of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes acceptance and attendance at UGA. I was fascinated and deeply surprised that more attention and that she (Charlayne Hunter-Gault) wasn’t more well-known.”

Joy Buolamwini

Joy Buolamwini is a short documentary by Ascot Avenue Elementary School student Abbigail Mira. It has won an Eva Haller WTM Student Award and a WOJ Youth Reporter Award Elementary at the 20^th Annual MY HERO International Film Festival. The film was created as part of the MY HERO Media Arts Education program at Ascot Elementary in Los Angeles.

Read more about the MY HERO Media Arts Education program here.

To see previous WTM winners go to: /wtm-award

MY HERO Film Festival
MY HERO will be presenting the Awards at the 20th Anniversary MY HERO International Film Festival Awards Ceremony on November 16th, 2024 in Santa Monica at the Ann & Jerry Moss Theater at New Roads School, 3131 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca. 90404.

Join MY HERO in celebrating 20 years of The MY HERO International Film Festival. Find out more here: festival-information

Schedule: 6:00 - 7:00 PM - Reception with live jazz - 7:00 - 9:00 PM - Film Festival Awards Ceremony Dessert reception to follow.

Reserve your tickets HERE: