The problem with showing my soon-to-be-14-year-old daughter a documentary about seven young women and the possibility of a female president of the United States was that I could imagine the conversation afterward.

"So, do you want to be president some day?"

"I want to be in a movie."

The experience under my roof is that young teens, boys or girls, aren't too big on politics.

But movies are another matter. A couple of Christmases ago I took a flyer and got my daughter a DVD of a documentary titled "Mad Hot Ballroom." I knew next to nothing about it, but watching it brought cheers and blubbering tears. My daughter liked it, too. It's the irresistible true story of some New York City kids who take school classes in ballroom dance and improbably rise to the top of a big competition.

When I heard that Amy Sewell, writer/producer of "Mad Hot Ballroom," was bringing her new documentary to Madison for its world premiere at the Wisconsin Film Festival, I knew I wanted to see it and speak with the filmmaker.

The film is titled "What's Your Point, Honey?" It profiles seven young women as they participate in an internship program called Project 2024, a joint effort of the White House Project and Cosmogirl! magazine aimed at encouraging women to run for office, including the highest office.

Its world premiere is at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Bartell Theater, as part of the film festival. Sewell will be on hand, as will one of the seven women featured in the movie -- Margot Presley, who was a UW-Madison student while the film was being made.

Sewell's own story is quite something. In 2003, her twin daughters were entering school in New York City and Sewell was trying to launch a freelance writing career. Her local community paper, the Tribeca Trib, assigned her a story about fifth-grade students taking ballroom dance.

The rest is history. Against all odds, Sewell took a freelance newspaper assignment and turned it into one of the most successful documentaries of all time. She got a book out of the experience as well -- a behind-the-scenes account of her journey titled "The Mad Hot Adventures of an Unlikely Documentary Filmmaker."

The new film grew out of some conversations Sewell had with Susan Toffler, her friend and eventual co-producer/director. They wanted to tackle feminism and struggled to narrow their theme. Much had been done on the subject, and much accomplished, but what was next? One of Sewell's twins had asked her, "How come women can't ride motorcycles?" Samantha had never seen a woman on one. Maybe it's not all that far from there to, "How come a woman can't be president?"

They started shooting in June 2006 when the seven women arrived in New York for their internships. Hillary Clinton's run has heightened the timeliness of the subject and its importance would seem self-evident. As Sewell told me when we spoke recently, "We wanted to put something out there about girls who aren't Paris Hilton."

The documentary features feminist icon Gloria Steinem as well as Marie C. Wilson, founder of the White House Project and Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

But the true stars are the seven college women who in 2024 would be of age to run for president. That's the film's real inspiration -- through them you get the voice of the future of the women's movement. You also get it in a charming way from three young girls -- around 10 years old -- who appear periodically to raise questions about gender issues.

Of Margot Presley, the UW-Madison student in the film, Sewell told me, "Thank God for Margot. She is all about women's issues. She's sweet but she brings out things about inequality."

The segment on Presley in the movie opens with a shot up State Street to the Capitol. We learn that her third-grade teacher -- she's from Duluth -- had suggested she might indeed be the first woman president of the United States. We see her walking on campus, and fuming over the country's failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Her internship was with U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

Since the filming, Presley has graduated with a sociology major and a minor in women's studies. Her last semester at UW she spent in Kenya (where she learned Swahili) working with women in the fishing industry. She's currently working at an at-risk youth center in Duluth.

I watched an advance copy of the movie with my daughter this week, and it turned out I had underestimated her. She enjoyed it very much.

"I want a woman president, Dad," she said. "I just may not want to run myself."

I told her not to worry -- her family is too disreputable for that.