"They say that in the Army, the women are mighty fine."

When I was a kid, it was considered a huge insult to say “your mother wears combat boots!” They even made a TV movie with the same title. And who can forget the bumbling 1980’s Private Benjamin where Goldie Hawn’s character was initially more interested in shopping and make-up than conducting proper drill and ceremony. These were my first images of women in the military. (Naively, I entered West Point thinking it was going to be more like summer camp and less like Full Metal Jacket).

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Fast forward 30 years post-Judy Benjamin. Enter the age of Lioness. In this gripping documentary, a female solider on foot patrol with the Marines in Iraq is caught up in a deadly firefight against enemy insurgents. In another scene, a female soldier in full combat gear is searching house-to-house in enemy territory; patting down the Iraqi women looking for hidden weapons.

Filmmakers Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers bring us the incredible untold story of the first group of women soldiers who were sent into direct ground combat. Through intimate accounts, journal excerpts, and archive footage, this films follows five women who served together for a year in Iraq. With captivating detail, this probing documentary reveals the unexpected course of events that began when US women soldiers were used to defuse tensions among local Iraqi civilians, but resulted in them fighting in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgencies battles of the war.

Lioness bridges the gap between the perception and the reality regarding the role women in the military are playing in Iraq.

Lioness will premiere at the GI Film Festival in May in Washington DC. For more information about the GI Film Festival please visit our website at www.gifilmfestival.com. The GI Film Festival is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the services and sacrifices of the men and women in uniform. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help support our mission.