"Blessed is the Match," by WIF's 2008 Film Finishing Fund recipient, Director Roberta Grossman, makes its US television premiere Tuesday, April 13th.  The film will show on KCET's "Independent Lens," scheduled at 10:00 pm.  This documentary feature follows the story of Hannah Senesh as she parachutes into Nazi-occupied Europe to help save Hungary's Jews - only to be imprisoned alongside the person she wants to rescue the most - her mother.  A harrowing account of the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust, the film is also a moving mother-daughter tale. 

WIF Member Becky Smith's "16 to Life," won "Best Foreign Feature" at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto last week.  Smith, a 1993 WIF Film Finishing Fund grant winner, is an Emmy-nominated writer/director for "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." 

"16 to Life" puts a wry, witty and unpredictable ensemble cast in a small-town locale.  The film centers around Kate, played by Hallee Hirsh (ER, You’ve Got Mail), a small town girl whose angst about her sexual inexperience fuels a comic quest for love and understanding on a birthday to end all birthdays.  Kate’s turning Sweet 16 and she’s never been kissed.  In pursuit of a kiss before the clock strikes midnight, she’ll learn what a 16 year-old American girl has in common with a 16 year-old Chinese girl half a world and a cultural revolution away.