Women’s Image Network Announces Abigail Disney Woman of the Year Honoree

NEW YORK - Dec. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- Women’s Image Network Announces Abigail Disney Woman of the Year Honoree

December 3, 2015 (Los Angeles) Women’s Image Network, (WIN) announces filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney will accept its Woman of The Year tribute at The Women’s Image Awards 2015, (now in year 17).  The Women’s Image Awards advance WIN’s mission to achieve gender equality by honoring media artists and others who create dimensional female film and television images. Previous WIN Awards honorees are Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, and Senator Barbara Boxer, among others.

Abigail Disney’s innovative filmmaking and activism bolsters women’s leadership in all public spheres. Her work especially highlights the power of non-violent organizing for peace. Disney is the founder and president of Peace is Loud, a nonprofit company dedicated to supporting and spotlighting women, who are stepping up for peace and resisting violence in their communities. Disney said of her Woman of the Year WIN tribute, “I'm so honored to be recognized by the Women's Image Awards.  I have been to many kinds of countries--some where women are valued and many where they are not--and I have been amazed at the difference a positive image of women makes not only to the wellbeing of the women themselves but to the welfare and success of society as a whole.  If the human race wants to stop surviving and start thriving, it would do well to look to women for a new kind of leadership”.

WIN agrees with Disney, who asserts that women’s rights are the last great cause of this century. While WIN Founder and President, Phyllis Stuart has celebrated deserving artists since 1993, about Disney, Stuart said: “Like Sisyphus I’ve long rolled the proverbial equal rights rock up the hill and working to change entrenched opinions in Hollywood one faces resistance. So, while I’ve been producing this awards show for 17 years, after meeting Abigail Disney I feel inspired and reinvigorated. I admire Abigail who has devoted her life to helping women and who understands that dimensional female media images improve women’s lives”.

This year Disney created the vital documentary film The Armor of Light which marks her directorial debut.  In her gripping film,Disney tracks Reverend Rob Schenck, an anti-abortion activist and a fixture on the political far right, as he breaks with religious and political orthodoxy and questions whether being pro-gun is consistent with being pro-life. Disney’s protagonist juggles his moral conundrum until meeting the mother of a slain, unarmed Florida teenager, Jordan Davis whose murder shone a light on the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law.

The Armor of Light follows two unlikely allies through trials of conscience and heartbreak and rejection to witness Schenck convert his pro-gun position and preach his new views about the harm caused by an escalating toll of American gun violence. In this courageous look at our fractured political culture, an Evangelical minister and the mother of a teenage shooting victim come together across deep party lines to find common ground.

More About Abigail Disney
Along with her husband, Pierre Hauser, Abigail co-founded the Daphne Foundation in 1991 which funds programs that confront the causes and consequences of poverty in the five boroughs of New York City. The Daphne Foundation has a particular interest in organizations that are engaging their members in the creation and implementation of long-term solutions to intractable social problems.  Since 1991, the Daphne Foundation has given millions in grants to organizations working on a diversity of issues including women’s rights, affordable housing, youth development, community engagement and many others.

Disney produced her first film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell with the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Gini Reticker —which chronicles the remarkable story of the Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.  Since it won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008, Pray the Devil Back to Hell has screened in all 7 continents in over 60 countries in thousands of venues for women and men from all walks of life.  It has instilled hope and inspired many living in conflict zones and has been called required viewing by dignitaries, politicians and leaders of peace keeping forces. The film is also broadly credited with helping its lead figure Leymah Gbowee win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

Abigail personally took Pray the Devil Back to Hell to screen in over 30 countries to amplify the voices of women fighting for peace on the frontlines. She founded Peace is Loud in 2009 to generate a groundswell of people committed to building a culture of peace. Since then, Peace is Loud has inspired action through live events and media that spotlight the frontline leadership of women peace builders worldwide.

Abigail then created the special series for PBS, Women, War & Peace. Her production company Fork Films seeks to shed light, evoke compassion, stir action and build peace by creating grants whose recipients include 1971, Citizen Koch, Hot Girls Wanted, and The Invisible War.

About The Women’s Image Awards Bestowing honors on men and women who create dimensional female media images to advance global gender parity.