You thought #TimesUp was a new initiative? Think again. This Changes Everything is the rallying cry lovers of cinema, supporters of women, and those who just aspire to see a fairer, more equitable industry have been waiting for.
“We had one Oscar, a Fulbright, and two Emmys; but what we realised we were missing was a penis.”
Screened as part of NZIFF 2019
This Changes Everything 2018
First there was #MeToo, then there was #TimesUp. The last few years have been touted as a reckoning for the film industry, with women pushing back against substandard and discriminatory behaviour. This timely, straight-talking documentary – made by a male director committed to highlighting and disrupting the male gender bias – goes beyond the hashtag movements to remind us that the fight is nothing new and the struggle for parity is far from over. And the fight can’t be fought by women alone.
“[Partnering] with The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media… the film… paints an impressively full picture of how Hollywood’s gender imbalance is sustained and also how it reverberates throughout the culture. Davis herself serves as an Executive Producer… Meryl Streep, Yara Shahidi, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Tiffany Haddish, Sandra Oh, and Tracee Ellis Ross all… [go] on record with their dissatisfaction, and it’s powerful in and of itself to watch them say, one after another, that this is not OK. Their stories are juxtaposed against that of the Original Six – a group of women directors who gathered and circulated evidence of gender discrimination at major movie studios in the 80s. While they seemed to have been fighting in a vacuum, the support of the public, Davis believes, is now behind the cause.” — Sage Young, Bustle
“This Changes Everything connects the many gender-inequality dots corroding Hollywood – including problematic hiring practices, wage gaps, the representation of women on-screen, and the treatment of women offscreen. Experts deliver stone-cold statistics, little-known Hollywood-history footnotes, and eventually clear-cut steps every man and woman can take to become an agent of change.” — Julie Miller, Vanity Fair
“Filmmaker Tom Donahue has a long investment in chronicling Hollywood’s gender bias. His documentary Casting By championed casting directors, an undervalued field dominated by women. His commitment signifies that righting the gender gap isn’t a job that falls only to women. ‘Progress will happen when men take a stand,’ Streep says in the film.” — Toronto International Film Festival