DivaWire http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire en mail@adventuredivas.com Copyright 2013 2013-05-13T14:43:00-08:00 Assata Shakur - on terrorist list? http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/assata-shakur-on-terrorist-list/ Some years back I interviewed Assata Shakur (as part as a profile on filmmaker Gloria Rolando) for our Adventure Divas episode “Cuba: Paradox Found.” This week, to our surprise, she gets the dubious distinction of being put on the “Most Wanted” terrorist list.
And, she has a big fat bounty on her head.  Lots of folks (including us) think this is more than odd - from Alice Walker to Vice.  Check it out..... - Holly

]]> 2013-05-13T14:43:00-08:00 International Women’s Day http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/international-womens-day2/ A very happy International Women’s Day to all you adventure divas out there. In the final pages of Adventure Divas , the book, I wrote about exploring cultures through the eyes of people whose independence, talent and vision are transforming lives communities, and political landscapes in their respective countries... about a new brand of role model: the self-determined woman who grapples with fear, lives passionately, and, in doing so improves the world around her....and about trying to put a face on the accepted (but yet-to-be-acted-on) socioeconomic fact that the progress of nations depends upon the empowerment of women.

That was some years back; today the global movement feels like it’s cresting a hill. Recent projects such as One Billion Rising, and the new film/movement Girl Rising make me wildly optimistic.

We’re just getting up to speed in this new, estrogen-charged century!

onward --- Holly

]]> 2013-03-09T03:11:00-08:00 Principal photography completed! http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/principal-photography-completed/ Thanks to all of you who supported the Babushkas of Chernobyl project through our hugely successful Kickstarter campaign.
The funds raised allowed us to return to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and continue to film with the women. We’re just back, furiously translating our tapes and screening footage.
Check out our Kickstarter site/blog for updates we posted from the road, and news as we seek finishing funds and move through post production. And in case you missed Holly Morris’ article that launched this entire Babushka endeavor - it was recently republished in London’s Telegraph as well as The Week.

]]>We’ll be posting footage from our shoot soon. In the meantime, how about a Globe Trekker exploration of the Exclusion Zone ghost town of Pripyat to tide you over?  A travel
moment perhaps better experienced from the armchair.... 

]]> 2012-12-06T14:42:00-08:00 Half the Sky makes it to the little screen… http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/half-the-sky-makes-it-to-the-little-screen/ Okay folks, you might want to program your DVR-s to catch the tv version of Half the Sky.  Here’s what PBS has to say about the programming airing Oct 1 & 2, 8 - 10 pm:
“Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide filmed in 10 countries, following Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union and Olivia Wilde on a journey to tell the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls.”

Right on. Fingers crossed that the good ethos holds up on the little screen, and the hollywood stars don’t overtake.  Half the Sky talked to a number of women from our PBS series, including the super-divalicous Ruchira Gupta. Check out this video excerpt from our feature on Ruchira here.
And for any of you New Yorkers, we’re event-ing with Ruchira mid-October. Drop us a line if you’d like to attend. —diva HQ

]]> 2012-09-09T15:42:00-08:00 Year of the Babushka? http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/year-of-the-babushka/ Second place in Eurovision! Not bad for a group of Russian grandmothers.  Just another indication that this is indeed The Year of the Babushka.
Given our current obsession with a particular set of older ladies living in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone, we’ve decided to set up a separate web page to track the progression of our film project about them.  Also, a Twitter feed @babushkasfilm

We recently watched A. D. founder Holly Morris pack up Sky Dancer, a butt load of zip lock bags, and her Leatherman (not much else, strangely) and she is now hurling toward Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey to trace the ancient Silk Road Route for the PBS series Globe Trekker. Follow her journey @hollymorris. 

]]> 2012-07-07T13:02:01-08:00 Filming in Ukraine http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/filming-in-ukraine/ Tomorrow we head out to Kiev - and then onto Chernobyl, for several days filming “The Babushkas of Chernobyl” in the Exclusion Zone.  This month marks the 26th anniversary of the accident and we’re going back to capture
the incredible/sad/timely/oddly inspiring stories of the women who insisted on returning to their ancestral homes after the disaster.  Holly Morris wrote about this unusual sisterhood in MORE magazine last year, and now for the documentary....

]]> 2012-04-11T18:54:00-08:00 Apne Aap carries on http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/apne-aap-carries-on/ Today a quick shout out the indomitable Ruchira Gupta and Apne Aaap who have been working to end sex trafficking for more than a decade.  When we interviewed Ruchira for Adventure
Divas- India she said :“What we want to do is actually eradicate sex trafficking and the exploitation inside prostitution...The good news is that the women are willing to fight. Six years ago, when I came into this brothel, they were so timid and they were so scared, they were not willing to even talk to each other. They did not let outsiders in, and today, six years later, you can see the laughter and the joy that they have.”
In honor of their first decade we’re highlighting an excerpt from that doc.

]]> 2011-12-12T19:26:00-08:00 Occupy for integrity http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/occupy-for-integrity/ Kiran Bedi, the rabble rousing Indian top cop and anti-corruption guru who we featured in Adventure Divas: India, makes the opinion pages of yesterday’s New York Times.  Check out her comments on the Occupy movement and learn about her role with team Anna Hazare.
“We’re not anti-capitalism,” she says in the article, “we’re pro-integrity.”

And you better believe it.  After all, Bedi’s first notable act as India’s first female cop was to tow the prime minister’s car (hey, we was illegally parked).  Then she went on to
reform India’s notorious prison system- with meditation and other unlikely revolutionary tools.....

]]> 2011-11-01T16:43:00-08:00 Follow the feeds…. http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/follow-the-feeds/ Many of the women featured in our doc series are too deep in the trenches to Tweet, others are living in Arab Spring-ish countries and Tweeting under pseudonyms, and still others embrace the tech under their real names.  Here are some feeds to follow in order to keep up with the work and spirit of the divas. 

@theKiranBedi
@ruchiragupta
@gaylene-preston
@smudgal
@HelenClarkUNDP
@Lazarailzette

]]> 2011-10-24T16:48:00-08:00 Bangladesh, Bangladesh http://www.adventuredivas.com/divawire/posts/bangladesh-bangladesh/ "Bangladesh, Bangladesh, where so many people are dying fast, and it sure looks like a mess, I’ve never seen such distress,’’ crooned George Harrison in 1971, but forty years later there’s a different story to be told. The story features Dhallywood, 10 million environmental refugees and otherworldly rickshaw artists. As soon as I manage to peel apart my notes (currently fused together with sweat and humidity), I’ll post a fuller report. Meanwhile, feel free to check out the photos posted by Globe Trekker.

]]> 2011-05-26T18:06:00-08:00