October 19, 2011 — The documentary "Twiga Stars: Tanzania's Soccer Sisters," will be presented Oct. 24 by the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, part of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia.

The film, to be shown at 5:30 p.m. in Minor Hall room 125, will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker, Nisha Ligon. The event is free and open to the public.

"Twiga Stars" follows a season with the team as they not only train for games and tournaments, but also for social acceptance under the slogan "wanawake wanaweze" ("women are capable"). The film is an intimate and uplifting portrait of young women and their struggles as they work on excelling at soccer in one of the poorest nations in the world.

"Twiga Stars" won the Audience Choice Award at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and has been an official selection at several other film festivals.

Ligon is a free-lance filmmaker from the U.S. and Thailand, and is completing her master's degree in science media production at Imperial College in London. She also works for the BBC World Service.