May 8, 2025 | 12 PM EST

Join Women Make Movies in the exciting case study on Maia Lekow’s journey co-directing HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY. This webinar will have a special focus on its international co-production with Executive Prouder Roger Ross Williams and the importance of this model now more than ever when grants and funding are being endangered in the US.

Nairobi-born-and-based filmmaker Maia Lekow first burst onto the international scene with her 2019 award-winning documentary, THE LETTER, which was Kenya’s official selection to the 93rd Academy Awards and co-directed by her filmmaking and real-life partner Christopher King. Fast forward to January 2025, and their latest feature-length documentary, HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY had its World Premiere in the World Competition section at Sundance and has already gone on to SXSW, True/False, CPH:DOX, San Francisco International Film Festival and recently won the award for Best Documentary at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.

HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY, made with the support of the Production Assistance Program, follows two intrepid Nairobi women who decide to transform what used to be a whites-only library until 1958 into a vibrant cultural hub. Along the way, they must navigate local politics, raise millions for the rebuild, and confront the lingering ghosts of Kenya’s colonial past.