ENGEL ENTERTAINMENT'S FEATURE DOCUMENTARY WINS AUDIENCE AWARD AT 50th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL SHOWING AT THE SILVERDOCS AFI/DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESITVAL ON JUNE 16TH HAS "SOLD OUT"

A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL, the feature documentary by Engel Entertainment, had its Premiere on May 5, 2007 at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival. It was a Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature contender and won the coveted Audience Award.

A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who endure devastating injuries arising from obstructed labor during childbirth and make the journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these young women are abandoned to lives of loneliness and shame. The trials they endure – and their attempts to rebuild their lives – tell a universal story of hope, courage, and transformation. Through the womenís own eyes, and in their own voices, a larger story is revealed, that of the seemingly intractable problems facing women in the developing world, including malnutrition, child marriage, and lack of obstetric care.

Filmed in a "cinéma verité" style in HD, the powerful story A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL tells is enhanced by dramatic views of the Ethiopian countryside. It is a compelling and inspirational film featuring stories of survival and triumph rarely seen on the screen.

Produced by Steven Engel and Mary Olive Smith, A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL marks the feature directorial debut of Smith, who has worked at Engel Entertainment for eleven years. It is co-directed by Amy Bucher.

Engel Entertainment will donate profits from the film to the Fistula Foundation in the U.S., which directly supports the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia where all of the women featured in the film were treated.

Editor's Note:

Obstetric fistula is a widespread and devastating condition caused by unrelieved obstructed labor, inevitably producing a stillborn child. The outcome is a hole in the flesh, which if untreated, results in permanent incontinence. While struggling to cope with the loss of their baby, in many cases the only one they will ever have, most women who develop fistulas find themselves without a home or family to care for them. Without a cure, women with this condition spend the rest of their lives in physical pain, shame and isolation. In Ethiopia there are currently 146 gynecologists for a population of 77 million inhabitants, and most of these are in the capital city, leaving women in rural areas tragically neglected. More than two million women throughout Africa are believed to suffer from obstetric fistula.

Background:

Engel Entertainment is a dynamic innovative and award winning New York-based production company best known for producing high-quality television series and specials across a wide variety of genres for 25 years. From blue chip documentaries to long-running series, Engel Entertainmentís programming spans every continent and almost every imaginable subject matter--running the gamut from science and history to reality and formats. With a talented team of producers, project managers, story developers, editors, graphic designers and associate producers Engel Entertainment produces critically acclaimed programming for many of the top names in television worldwide.

The Fistula Foundation is the only organization in the United States devoted to supporting the Addis Ababa Fistula hospital and to helping enable its expansion with the building of five new small fistula hospitals throughout Ethiopia. Founded in 2000, the Foundation is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and is governed by a national board of 12 members. The Foundation has earned the Better Business Bureau seal for meeting all of its best practice standards and has achieved the Charity Navigator 4-Star rating, given to fewer than 25 percent of charities, for its effective management.

Click here to contribute to the film A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL.

For further information please contact:

Bill McLeod – Press
wwmcleod@comcast.net
415.492.1668 (H/O)
415.377.6268 (C)

Kate Grant – Fistula Foundation
kate@fistulafoundation.org
408.249.9596
http://www.fistulafoundation.org

Allison Shigo – Engel Entertainment
allison@engelentertainment.com
212.413.9200
http://www.engelentertainment.com
http://www.walktobeautiful.com