A film on Women in poverty to be shown nationwide March 4th

"A Powerful Noise" a new documentary from Unify Films and director Tom Cappello will be shown nationwide on March 4th. The charity CARE is sponsoring the nationwide event.

The movie focuses on three women from different parts of the world. The women from Vietnam, Mali and Bosnia, not only struggle with poverty themselves, but strive to make lives easier for others.

In this story that we found in the Chicago area's Pioneer Local, writer Myrna Petlicki gives us more details on the women featured in the film.

Hanh, a Vietnamese woman with HIV who lost her husband and child to the disease, works to prevent AIDS and destigmatize its sufferers. In a town whose population and buildings were decimated by the Bosnian war, single mother Nada creates an agricultural co-op run by Serbs and Bosniaks united to rebuild their home. And in one of the world's poorest countries, matriarch Madame Urbain educates and represents exploited migrant girls in the slums of Bamako, Mali.

"These women are making a powerful noise. They're instigating change up against all odds," said ABC 7 Entertainment reporter Janet Davies, the local ambassador for international humanitarian organization CARE. "It makes a difference in their world, and eventually it makes a difference in our world."

"A Powerful Noise" will be shown in dozens of local movie theaters on one night only, March 5, in conjunction with hundreds of cinemas around the nation. The event is sponsored by CARE and an impressive coalition of international aid groups, and concludes with a live town hall meeting held in New York City but simulcast to the local theaters.

During the post-film discussion, Chicago-area audiences will be able text their questions to panelists -- including former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, activist/model Christy Turlington Burns and actress Natalie Portman -- as they discuss the role of women in the fight against global poverty.

"CARE has evolved over its 64 years into being an organization that targets women and children, because they are most marginalized in this world," Davies said. "It's the women and children who, when given the tools, thrive and survive."