Anne De Mare & Kirsten Kelly’s THE GIRL WITH THE RIVET GUN Shares The Stories Of 3 Of The Unsung Female Heroes Of World War II

Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly’s remarkable short ‘The Girl with the Rivet Gun’ shares the stories of 3 of the unsung female heroes of World War II

Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly’s animated short The Girl with the Rivet Gun tells the story of three real life Rosie the Riveters during World War II: Esther Horne, Susan Taylor King and Mildred Crow Sargent, who overcome the stereotypes of women during the war. This impressive documentary screened at Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival 2020 where it was awarded a Jury’s Choice Award. Alongside the female co-directors, the rest of the filmmakers behind this film are all women.

Focusing on three women from vastly different backgrounds - Esther Horne, Susan Taylor King and Mildred Crow Sargent –this film weaves together powerful moments from each of these Rosie's journeys of transformation, which serve as our entry point to a rich, layered, and adventurous rewriting of history as herstory, providing new understanding of this pivotal time in the transformation of America.

Co-Directors and Producers Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly are award-winning documentary filmmakers whose feature film together, The Homestretch, broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens and received the 2015 Emmy Award. Being a filmmaking team that have worked together for more than fifteen years, they share a deep commitment to projects that celebrate the transformative power of the human spirit as well as exploring the human connection to social justice issues. Anne recently directed Capturing The Flag, a feature documentary that received its world premiere at the 2018 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which follows four volunteer voter protection lawyers in Fayetteville, North Carolina during the 2016 Presidential Election. De Mare was also a co-producer on the ITVS documentary Deej (America ReFramed), which won a Peabody Award in 2017. Kirsten directed and produced the documentary short Stranger/Sister (to be released in 2020) and Healing The Healers, a new media resource intended to support clergy, laity, social workers and other spiritual care providers facing community-level trauma from mass shootings and religious-inspired hate crimes.

Producer Elizabeth Hemmerdinger’s documentary Perfectly Normal For Me, which broadcasted on PBS’s America ReFramed, won a 2020 Christopher Award. Elizabeth collaborated with Anne and Kirsten as an Associate Producer on The Homestretch, with Anne as Producer on Capturing The Flag, and she was Producer of the film Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was named one of the five essential documentaries of 2013 by Tribeca Institute. Hemmerdinger wrote and produced the narrative short film, Good Sister which starred Jessica Hecht and Grant Shaud.

Danielle Ash is an experimental filmmaker and stop-motion animation director who works with a variety of methods and materials to create animated art. A winner of the Helen Hill Animation Award, she has taught, shown her work and appeared as a visiting artist at The Museum of the Moving Image, Ann Arbor Film Festival and many others. The Girl with the Rivet Gun is her most recent animation in stop-motion utilizing sets and characters made of cardboard material.