PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN, THE

THE PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN, a largely unknown women's rights story, introduces viewers to the trailblazers who challenged the very essence of patriarchy within Christendom and successfully created a blueprint for lasting institutional change. The film chronicles how a group of women in the Episcopal Church shared a call to become priests. After two legislative votes to make it possible for women to be ordained failed, they organized their own ordination as priests in defiance of church norms. Their ordination became not only a personal struggle but also a very public battle over whether women were qualified to lead. Despite the backlash, they successfully changed the church by asserting their leadership and a vision for a new way – on their own terms.