This Changes Everything
With Maria Giese
In this timely follow-up to his documentary Casting By (HCAF 2012), Tom Donahue explores the insidious and systematic sexism in Hollywood through the voices of leading actors and directors, including Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Jessica Chastain, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and many other ambassadors of the #TimesUp movement.
Uncovering what’s behind one of the most confounding dilemmas in the entertainment industry—the under-representation and misrepresentation of women behind and in front of the camera—this documentary takes an incisive look into the historical and empirical evidence, and systematic forces that foster gender discrimination and reinforce disparities in our culture. Even the most jaded viewers will be taken aback by the film’s compelling evidence and anecdotes. Executive Producer Geena Davis (Thelma and Louise) has led groundbreaking research into Hollywood’s portrayal of women. Those damning facts become vivid through an array of iconic film clips.
| Country, Year | United States, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Director | Tom Donahue |
| Cast | GEENA DAVIS , MERYL STREEP, JESSICA CHASTAIN, ROSARIO DAWSON, TARAJI P. HENSON, NATALIE PORTMAN |
| Language | English |
| Runtime | 93 MINS, 00 SECS |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Subject | Film |
| Event Type | Film |
Special Guests
Maria Giese
Maria Giese wrote and directed the 1996 feature film When Saturday Comes starring Sean Bean and Pete Postlethwaite, and the award-winning digital feature film Hunger based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Knut Hamsun. She has also directed two Golden Cine Eagle-winning short films and has written three screenplays that have been produced into feature films. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Film Fatales, and the Alliance of Women Directors, and is founding chair of the annual Women’s Media Summit.
In 2015 after four years of activism in the Directors Guild of America, Giese became the person who instigated the biggest industry-wide Federal investigation for women directors in Hollywood history. In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis referred to her work as “a veritable crusade.” Her new TEDx talk, “The Battle For Female Voices in Entertainment Media,” and her upcoming book, “Troublemaker,” describe her work getting the ACLU and EEOC to investigate this issue— the ramifications of which are resonating globally.