DOCUMENTARY FILM TO SCREEN ON
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at the Brenden Theater, 531 Davis Street
Sponsored by the Vacaville Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club and Brenden Theaters
Thanks to the Representation movement, the conversation around the 67th Emmy Awards changed! Viewers from around the world spoke out against sexism on the red carpet and beyond with the hashtag #AskHerMore. Joined by #SmartGirlsAsk, leaders like Katie Couric, Shonda Rhimes, and Hillary Clinton tweeted powerful questions, moving the discussion away from women’s appearance and towards their accomplishments. But we need to continue the conversation with another community screening of Miss Representation.
Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Miss Representation exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.
Local Screening: There will be a free local screening of Miss Representation on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at Brenden Theaters, 531 Davis Street, Vacaville, CA. The documentary screens promptly at 6pm. For tickets and information please go to EventBrite at https://missrepresentationsolanocounty.eventbrite.com/. Seats are limited and tickets are required. This event is hosted by Michele DeGeorge, Anna Eaton, and Susan Schwartz. The media is invited to attend the screening and cover the post-screening discussion.
Miss Representation includes stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics like Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne, and Gloria Steinem. The film offers startling facts and statistics that will leave audiences shaken and armed with a new perspective.
In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality–and not in her capacity as a leader. While women have made strides in leadership over the past few decades, the U.S. is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures, women hold only 3 % of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating.
Miss Representation debuted in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival where it caught the eye of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. It made its television premier as part of the OWN documentary film club in October 2011, with over 1.3 million people tuning in to multiple airings. More than two years later over 40 countries have screened the film in corporations, non-profits, religious groups, government organizations and communities are happening every day all over the world.
“We are thrilled to have so many outreach opportunities for Miss Representation. This film was made to be a change agent in our culture, to inspire both women and men to recognize women’s collective voice, leadership capacity and equal rights,” says Newsom.
Miss Representation was selected from the Sundance line-up to be part of the OWN Documentary Film Club. “Through personal stories and provocative interviews, Jennifer crystalizes the relevance of the media and its portrayal of women in today’s society,” said Lisa Erspamer, Chief Creative Officer for OWN. In addition, ro*co films will distribute Miss Representation to educational institutions (K-12 institutions, universities and libraries) located in the United States and Canada.
The distribution of the film Miss Representation has been the catalyst for a social action campaign led by TheRepresentationProject.org. The campaign seeks to empower women and girls and provide them with new opportunities to realize their full potential.
MissRepresentation.org is igniting a cross-generational movement to shift the cultural mindset of communities, interrupt and stop patterns of sexism, change the way women and girls are represented in the media and ensure a tipping point that will lead to gender parity in leadership throughout the United States. Join the campaign at www.therepresentationproject.org.
Anna Eaton
Executive Director
Vacaville Neighborhood Boys & Girls Club
100 Holly Lane, Vacaville CA 95688
Phone (707) 454-6845
Fax (707) 446-4937