Against all odds and polar advice, a Muslim chaplain, a French biologist, a Qatari princess and eight other women from the Arab World and the West attempt to ski across the melting Arctic sea ice to the North Pole. These boundary-breaking adventurers, led by veteran polar explorer Felicity Aston, navigate everything from frostbite and polar bear threats, to sexism and self-doubt in an intimate story of resilience, survival and global citizenry. These audacious women are also, to date, the last ever to ski over the ice to the North Pole.

Kristal Bush grew up in Philadelphia watching nearly every man in her life disappear to prison. She channeled that struggle into keeping families connected as a social worker and through her van service that transports riders – mostly women – to visit partners, fathers and sons in faraway prisons. But when Kristal’s father and brother come home after decades behind bars, she confronts what it means to piece her own family back together, and create a different future for her young nephew, Nyvae. Weaving intimate vérité scenes with Kristal’s own videos, A WOMAN ON THE OUTSIDE is a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them.