It’s Wednesday evening after another steamy day on the NC coast, with the temperature still close to 100. I have just poured a crisp, cool glass of white wine, and am scanning the Internet, waiting to hear about Judge Walker’s decision on Prop 8, and the fight to repeal the ban of gay marriages in CA. My cell rings, it’s my (straight) friend Liz, “Hey! We won! I just heard on NPR! They overturned Prop 8.” Wow. While not unexpected, suddenly I am short of breath. Imagine the impact: this decision supports every couple’s right to express their love and commitment. Over the rest of the evening (and one more glass of wine) I explored the Internet, and wanted to share three steps you could take now as this case heads to the US Circuit Court of Appeals.
1) Be proud.Read Judge Walker’s ruling: 136 pages of carefully reasoned, critical rationale for overturning the ban. The US Constitution is alive and robust throughout this document. 2) Read analysis of the decision and watch some excellent news videos from Prop 8 Trial Tracker. 3) Go to Christie Herring’s facebook page for The Campaign, a film in development supported in part by Working Films that shares – with startling insider access, the daily emotional roller coaster of the folks who worked to defeat Prop 8 in the voting booth. They lost that fight. It suddenly looks like the film might have a happier ending.
As an out gay man, living in the American South for over 40 years, this decision is intensely personal for me and for thousands of gays and lesbians like me. In his findings, Judge Walker states: In the absence of a rational basis, what remains of proponents’ case is an inference, amply supported by evidence in the record, that Proposition 8 was premised on the belief that same-sex couples simply are not as good as opposite-sex couples. Whether that belief is based on moral disapproval of homosexuality, animus towards gays and lesbians or simply a belief hat a relationship between a man and a woman is inherently better than a relationship between two men or two women, this belief is not a proper basis on which to legislate. In other words, you can’t legislate hate.
Suddenly, the universe has tilted a bit in our direction, and for the first time, we are free to imagine a future and a life that fully embraces all the potential for intimacy and happiness with a partner. My faith in the founding principles of this country has just been reclaimed a bit; I am heartened and excited about the possibility of winning this battle, all the way to the Supreme Court. It is, without question, a profound moment in American jurisprudence. But it is also intensely personal.
Last month, Working Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures hosted a screening of Nancy Schwartzman’s film The Line, for our Story Leads to Action series at 92YTribeca. After the screening, the audience discussed how the film could be used in high schools, college freshman orientation programs, sexual violence prevention programs and law school and criminal justice education.
On the panel were:
- Nancy Schwartzman (Director)
- Michelle J. Anderson (Dean and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law)
- Neil Irvin (Executive Director, Men Can Stop Rape)
- Don McPherson (former NFL football player; current sports announcer and activist)
- Meghan O’Conner (NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault)
On her blog, Nancy gives a breakdown of the key points that each panelist spoke on.
Also, check out what Jessica at “The Love That is Strong” had to say about the screening along with their thoughts on the larger discussion of sexual violence awareness and consent.
Last month, our friends over at The Line emailed us some exciting news and attention they received. Nancy and her team have been coming up with great ways to raise awareness about her film & campaign, Where is Your Line? They have also been very strategic in creating dialogues around sexual consent by using popular culture as a springboard.
Take a look as Nancy Schwartzman describes last month’s Valentine’s Day romance with MTV’s “A Thin Line”:
Since its launch, our team has been watching MTV’s “A Thin Line,” a campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of “Digital Abuse,” and helping teens untangle normal versus unhealthy relationship dynamics. They focus on how cell phones can amplify and exacerbate abusive behaviors. Some of my favorite slogans are: It’s a thin line between attentive/obsessive, curious/controlling, love/abuse. I was thinking that we over here at The Line Campaign, have a lot of things in common such as: young people, sexuality, violence, web-based media, and activism.
I was energized by the news last week that Christie Herring’s work-in-progress The Campaign was just awarded a new grant from Chicken & Egg Pictures. All week I had been following the related so-called Prop 8 trial, Kristin M. Perry v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, through the Courage Campaign’s Prop 8 trial tracker. Christie attended our MASS MoCA residency in 2009 when her film was in early development.
The Campaign follows the daily efforts and emotional rollercoaster of the community of people working to stop Prop 8, the 2008 Constitutional Amendment to end gay marriage in California. The film offers extraordinary behind-the-scene access and compelling evidence that what unfolded in this California campaign was a focused and cynical push to eliminate the fundamental rights of a “despised” minority.
As the trial heads into its third week in a U.S. District Court, Christie’s film and the story she is telling takes on new significance. The daily proceedings in the courtroom are astonishing; the plaintiffs case is that there is and was no bias against gays in this effort, a viewpoint which Christie’s film clearly undoes. As the defense began its case this week I asked Christie for her perceptions about this case, an update for her film and how folks can get involved and support her documentary. Here’s her response:
Hey Robert, I also have been following the case by tweet and blog. It touches on so many issues that affect me and people I love – airing out the ugliness of homophobia (last week’s testimony included a “Yes on Prop 8” leader claiming that homosexuality has been linked to pedophilia), the trauma that the ex-gay movement inflicts on us and our loved ones, the long term effects of internalized homophobia, and the reality of our lukewarm political support. It’s upsetting and infuriating.
The court fight is focused on a national / federal approach to LGBT rights and specifically marriage equality. This is a departure from the state-by-state strategy that’s been the focus of much of the movement thus far. The Campaign explores these strategies through Proposition 8, which has spanned both. In California, Proposition 8 stripped same gender couples of the right to marry, a fundamental right recognized and protected by the California Supreme Court just months before the 2004 election. By documenting the dedication and struggle inside the No On 8 campaign, my film makes clear how precious marriage equality is to LGBT families and how hard so many people fought to protect the equality and dignity that was ours for a just a moment. The Perry case will take this issue to the Federal Courts and eventually challenge the US Supreme Court to rule on the quality and validity of the families we form. The stakes are high, and there has been some disagreement among LGBT leaders about whether the Perry case is the right strategy and at the right time. But this is a disagreement about strategy, not values or direction. The common denominator is that marriage equality is precious and worth fighting for.
“Barbershops have always been a place where people come not only to get a haircut – but to meet and converse about current events, politics, pop culture, music, sports, WOMEN, relationships and more.” - Quentin Walcott of Connect NYC
We’ve been receiving a lot of inspiring updates from the filmmakers who participated in our Real Girls, Reel Change workshop last October. Jesse Epstein will be screening 2 films from her Body Typed project, Wet Dreams and False Images and 34x25x36, at the barbershop where it all began. Wet Dreams and False Images is about Dee Dee, owner of Fade2Famous, and the many girls plastered on the walls of his barbershop. After he learns that many of those girls are products of photo-retouching, his view of beauty changes.
After the screening, there will be a discussion lead by Dee Dee (Fade2Famous) Daralee Vazquez (Dee Dee’s sister), Quentin Walcot (Connect NYC) and Raid. The goal is to invite both men and women to this discussion about body image and beauty standards. The event will be filmed and will serve as an example of ways films can be used outside of theaters and in the community. For more information, visit the Facebook event.
Over the holidays I received an email from filmmaker Louise Vance of the film Seneca Falls which was a part of the Real Girls, Reel Change workshop last October. The film is about the journey of 9 teenage girls who travel from San Francisco to Seneca Falls, the birth of the women’s rights movement, to perform a play they created which celebrates the women’s movement. I was excited to hear that Seneca Falls will be broadcasting in March on two Public Television stations: KRCB in Northern California, home of the cast and filmmakers, and WXXI in Rochester, NY, home of the women’s rights historic sites. It will also be available to PBS stations around the country, many of whom will broadcast it for Women’s History Month in March. Louise lists some ways you can help out:
1) If you are an educator or active member or chapter head of an organization whose membership would be interested in seeing this film on public television, CALL your local PBS station and graciously inquire with program directors if they have heard about Seneca Falls. Ask if they plan to air it and when, and tell them you are interested in getting the word out to your organization to tune in, or organize viewing parties. If you can, offer to do some local publicity or PR – or set up a preview screening. What program directors want to know is that you can help deliver viewers to the program.
Filmmakers and organizations are coming up with creative ways to incorporate a spectrum of social media into film campaigns, including interactive websites and games, issue-based social networking communities, podcasts and web TV shows. FilmmakerDawn Valadez joins us as a guest blogger to share how she and her partners created their own social networking community just for girls.
Going on 13began in 2000 and was an ambitious journey to capture the transformation of 4 pre-teen girls as they became young women. We shot the film for four years and edited for two and have spent the last two promoting the film and sharing the film with audiences all over the world! We have been blown away by the positive responses and how the themes of the film–puberty, relationships, culture, identity, self-love–have been universally received in so many communities across cultures, genders and age groups. Our website shares the specifics about the film: www.goingon13.com.
We wanted to create a girl community online that goes beyond the typical fashion and fan pages that currently exist. We were looking to create something that really allows girls to be themselves and share what is most important to them. We are still fine tuning the site and hope to fully launch it in the early spring of 2010. This site will take the film out of the DVD and into the lives of girls and the people who care for them. It will allow us to extend the themes and ideas of the film far beyond the film to the national and international communities of girls. We have to work out some of the challenges with it–safety for one–before we really launch it so keep your eyes open for the launch of the site.
Filmmakers and organizations are coming up with creative ways to incorporate a spectrum of social media into film campaigns, including interactive websites and games, issue-based social networking communities, podcasts and web TV shows. Filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman joins us as a guest blogger to share how she’s using popular social media tools to engage young people in her campaign.
@thelinecampaign: Sex. Consent. Power. Pleasure.
The Line is a film. The Line is a movement. The Line is up to you.
“The Line is about building a world where people are free to be sexual beings without being used or mistreated. Hookup culture disempowers even its bravest soldiers with “dude, I’m gettin’ some tonight;” even when women play the game, we’re expected to obey someone else’s rules.”
From: “Next time, text me back: I was the Grrl du Jour” (Author: Carmen)
“I applaud Ronan’s speaking out about his struggle as a male person negotiating “Manhood” with a commitment to social justice… As a male person who grew up with and fully defensive about all but class privilege, I understand that coming to a place of recognition without defensiveness and learning from the discomfort is difficult and it’s a process that requires a courage and strength much more meaningful than the traditional “Manly” version.”
From: “Responses to: Sexist Boyhood in Urban New Jersey” (Author: Ronen, Comment Jonathon Grove)
The Line is a 24-minute documentary, challenging ideas about sexual consent, negotiation, and boundaries. It is told from a personal point of view in a compelling, engaging style suited for a college-age audience. It is the first film of its kind to address the topic of consent in a direct, sex-positive voice, while examining a sexual assault where part of the act was consensual and part of it was forced. The film asks the question: where is the line defining consent?
The biggest challenge for this outreach project, was taking the topic of sexual assault and creating a space for non-polarizing, accessible, and non-judgmental conversation that emphasizes communication, personal responsibility and pleasure. Our goal was to use The Line film to create an educational, interactive and multi-media campaign that fosters dialogue about sexual boundaries and consent, and empowers young men and women to discuss complex scenarios about healthy relationships and sex.
Working Films is proud to be coordinating panel discussions after two films at the Cucalorus Films Festival in our hometown of Wilmington, NC. Named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” by Movie Maker Magazine, Cucalorus runs November 11th-15th at venues across city.
Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama that uncovers the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Crude will screen at 10am Thursday November 12th.
In Off and Running, when adopted teen Avery’s curiosity about her African-American roots grows, she decides to contact her birth mother. This choice propels Avery into her own complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she’s always known. Off and Running will screen Sunday November 15th at 4pm.
For each film we aim to bring the issues home for the audience and make connections between the stories in the film and salient local issues.
Last week Working Films, The Fledgling Fund and Chicken & Egg Pictures hosted a 3 day workshop where 6 filmmakers came together to create audience engagement plans so that their films result in Reel Change. All of the films tell the stories of and touch on issues that affect girls and young women. During the first 2 days, the filmmakers worked on their “community engagement mission statement” so-to-speak. Each filmmaker answered the question “What impact do you want your film to have?” We challenged filmmakers to get specific about the outcomes they wished to see from their film, prompting them to also answer the question, “So what?… So what if your film is broadcast and many people see it? Or, so what if you have community screenings? What will the measurable difference in the lives of girls and young women be when you film is used strategically?
By the end of the two days filmmakers had drilled down to much more specific answers to these questions. Here’s a sampling of some of the concrete ideas.
Jesse Epstein of Body Typed wants to use her series of short films on body image to engage men and boys in a conversation and shift their attitudes about the role of the media in shaping our perspectives on beauty. She believes that we not only have to build girls’ media literacy skills and self esteem by deconstructing false images of themselves but that boys and men have to be challenged to do the same. One idea she has for reaching this audience is to hold community screenings in neighborhood barbershops.
Stephanie Wang-Breal’s film Wo Ai Ni Mommy is about more than just Chinese adoption, it is about questions of identity as well as a redefinition of exactly what is the new Chinese American family. Through Fang Sui Yong (who is renamed “Faith” by her Jewish-American family) we see how quickly shifts in culture and identity can happen for young adoptees and other immigrant children immersed into a completely new culture. Stephanie wants to use her film to educate adoptive and potential adoptive parents of the cultural gains and losses that result from their adoption and their impact so they are better prepared to work through the questions of identity that their children face. She also wants to work with organizations to set up workshops for adult adoptees based around the film. Interestingly over the course of the residency Stephanie began to think about immigrant families as an additional potential audience for her film that could also benefit from structured workshops or Q&As around cultural and ethnic identity questions facing their children.
Selena Burks, of the film Saving Jackie, used her time at the residency to focus in on how her film can be a tool to serve youth who have experienced many of the same abuses that she did growing up in a home with parents addicted to drugs. To date Selena has had success using the film as an educational tool for foster parents, social workers and other adults that work with youth in these situations. But at Real Girls, Reel Change she came up with some solid ideas about creating a screening toolkit that organizations working with youth in the foster care system or other at-risk groups could use so that the film becomes a prompt for young people to share their own stories of hardship and resiliency and to get access to resources that they might not have known existed. In particular Selena was introduced to the idea of targeting youth that are aging out of the foster care system and using the film as a jumping off point for them to learn about resources available to them. Selena had a chance to test out this model of using the film with youth immediately after Real Girls, Reel Change, with a screening for young women at the Lower Eastside Girls Club in Manhattan on the same night as the workshop.
These are just a few examples of ideas that came from the Real Girls, Reel Change workshop. And this is only the beginning of a much larger collaboration among these films and NGOs. You would think with all these filmmakers in the room there would be competiveness, but the 3 days were nothing but a supportive and encouraging environment. All of the filmmakers shared their experiences of what works and hasn’t worked for them and learned much from one another. There were talks of how all of the films can be used in one big collaborative effort, an idea that was also championed by the NGOs and foundations that participated on the final day of the residency.
On the last day held at 92YTribeca, the filmmakers did a marvelous job of presenting their ideas and pitching their films to numerous NGOs and foundations. A group of young women from NYC based writing program Power Writers were also present to observe and compose poems to summarize the things they learned over the course of the day. The poems were extremely powerful and were a testament to the impact that these films can make in the lives of girls.
Everyone left the day with concrete ideas on how to incorporate media and film into the current work they are doing and with some specific goals to start working towards with these films and filmmakers. And the best part of it all is that this is only the beginning!
The court fight is focused on a national / federal approach to LGBT rights and specifically marriage equality. This is a departure from the state-by-state strategy that’s been the focus of much of the movement thus far. The Campaign explores these strategies through Proposition 8, which has spanned both. In California, Proposition 8 stripped same gender couples of the right to marry, a fundamental right recognized and protected by the California Supreme Court just months before the 2004 election. By documenting the dedication and struggle inside the No On 8 campaign, my film makes clear how precious marriage equality is to LGBT families and how hard so many people fought to protect the equality and dignity that was ours for a just a moment. The Perry case will take this issue to the Federal Courts and eventually challenge the US Supreme Court to rule on the quality and validity of the families we form. The stakes are high, and there has been some disagreement among LGBT leaders about whether the Perry case is the right strategy and at the right time. But this is a disagreement about strategy, not values or direction. The common denominator is that marriage equality is precious and worth fighting for.
Over the holidays I received an email from filmmaker Louise Vance of the film 
Stephanie Wang-Breal’s film 
