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Sparkle (2)
Miss Representation premiered to a packed audience on Saturday January 22nd at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and screened six more times in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah turning away 70-200 people at almost all of the screenings.
The 10-day festival was a blur of excitement! The audience discussion, media flurry, and buzz on the streets about Miss Representation were incredible. Our documentary was one of a handful of screenings to sell out almost immediately. And we’re thrilled to report that we signed a television distribution deal with OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, last week!
We were unique among the U.S. Documentary Competition being one of only a few call-to-action films and our audiences heard the message loud and clear. I was moved to tears at nearly every screening when the audience received us with a standing ovation!
Women in the audience shared their frustrations about what they see in mainstream media and were eager to talk more about what we could all do to create change. Men came up to us saying, ‘this movie makes me want to be a better man.’ We were swarmed by people asking us to please screen at their grade schools, middle schools, high schools, universities, and film festivals.
I was so appreciative to have some of our experts from the film there with us to endorse our mission. Barbara Berg, Caroline Heldman, Daphne Zuniga, Devanshi Patel, Geena Davis, Gloria Steinem, Jim Steyer, Pat Mitchell and my husband Gavin Newsom joined the team for our Q&As and panel discussion to communicate the urgency and importance of joining our call to action.
Pat Mitchell, who moderated our panel discussion on solutions in an overflowing Levi’s Lounge, shared these heartfelt words about the momentum sparked by Miss Representation’s premiere: “You have launched a new movement, a new moment in time for all of us to seize together.”
We couldn’t be happier for all of the women filmmakers in particular who were honored at the Festival with recognition and distribution deals. Read just a few of the press articles from Sundance on our Web site: www.missrepresentation.org/press.
Sundance really was the perfect place to premiere Miss Representation and launch our social action campaign. We’ll next debut at the Athena Film Festival in New York promises to be equally exciting as we take our message to the east coast media hub. If you haven’t yet purchased your tickets for our 7pm screening Saturday February 12 at Columbia’s Miller Theater, do so now before it sells out! Stay for our panel discussion following the screening and attend our public Town Hall strategy meeting Sunday February 13th from 11am-12pm at Barnard College (3009 Broadway, New York) hosted by our partners Girls For A Change and The White House Project who will lead a discussion on solutions to the problems raised in Miss Representation. We hope to see you there!
