The 'Hello Girls' were the U.S. Army female telephone operators recruited during World War I to play a vital role in manually connecting telephone calls.

'Hello Girls' film on whirlwind schedule of Film Festivals, screenings 

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Our friends who produced the Hello Girls documentary film are enjoying great success, both in their film's audience/critical reception, and in their efforts to get these special women honored by Congress with the Congressional Gold Medal.

New Congressional sponsors have joined on from the U.S. Senate, and the project is gaining in visibility nationwide. A recent article about the Congressional Gold Medal effort can be found here.

The 'Hello Girls' were the U.S. Army female telephone operators recruited during World War I to play a vital role in manually connecting telephone calls. Their story is amazing. General Pershing personally issued a recruitment for skilled women, and over 7,000 volunteered. Two hundred and thirty were accepted, and were put to use across the battle areas of France. They patched through over 24 million telephone calls, and due to their vital skills, they stayed deployed long after the war was over, to help with communications for the Versailles Peace Treaty.

However, when they returned home to the U.S., these heroic women were denied basic veteran status by the Army -- which started a 60-year fight for them to gain recognition from the U.S. government for their service.

According to the film's producer and director James Theres, Hello Girls has been accepted into the lineup of several major Film Festivals, to include the GI Film Festival in San Diego, as well as the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis.

Below is a list of upcoming screenings for the documentary film, provided by Theres, with his comments:

Festivals

• Long Beach Indie Film, Media, and Music Festival--August 29-September 2 (Film festival that celebrates diversity) Director is going to attend this event over the Labor Day weekend.
• DOCUTAH International Documentary Film Festival--September 3-8 ("Dubbed top 25 Coolest film festivals in the country by Moviemaker magazine.")
• GI Film Festival in San Diego--September 25-30 ("Elite Festival for military/Veteran-themed films.")
• Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in Chagrin Falls, Ohio--October 3-7 ("Top 50 film festival by Moviemaker magazine.")
• Kansas International Film Festival, Overland Park, KS--October 12-18 ("18th year-top film festival in Kansas.")
• Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis--October 11-21 ("Academy Award Qualifying festival. This is the top rung of festivals.")
• To the Contrary: About Women--PBS-sponsored Film Festival airing on PBS. ("The Hello Girls has been selected to appear on PBS programming, but needs to be edited down to 25 minutes. Working on that soon.")
• St. Louis International Film Festival--November 1-11 ("Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival. They approached me with a waiver code. They're showing the film on November 11, 2018. That's big because the film is gaining recognition.")

Venues

• 100th American Legion National Convention in Minneapolis August 27.
• AUSA annual conference in Washington DC---October 8 ("Big brass here--Cokie Roberts is introducing the film and will sit on the Q and A panel.")
• US Army Women's Museum Ribbon Cutting, Fort Lee VA --November 2-3 ("Big brass here--Film will screen twice on November 3.")
• George Mason University in Washington DC--November 9
• Chaumont, France--November 11
• Fort Bragg, North Carolina Army Museum ("Tentative for early December.")