Tom, do you want to add to that? That so it was already a conversation that started to happen when I start developing the film with my producing partner. So I did. I'm talking about family-rated films. Like I think a lot of people have become familiar with the whole question of representation on screen. GROSS: So what about other women you knew from film school? I'm sure it made a lot of money. Be the first to contribute. Provocative, compelling, and accessible to even the most climate-fatigued viewers,This Changes Everythingwill leave you refreshed and inspired, reflecting on the ties between us, the kind of lives we really want, and why the climate crisis is at the centre of it all. And then Susan Sarandon comes out. You used to make a movie a year. GIESE: Well, that was the thing. makes a muscular case for global warming as the defining, cross-sectional issue of our era. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they just dont like me. Its the lowest hanging fruit possible. DAVIS: Yeah, it's very centering and focusing. She's got a handgun, pulls it on him, asks him to apologize. DONAHUE: Sure. Anyone can read what you share. They respond by organizing against fossil fuel extraction in their beloved Powder River Basin, and forming a new alliance with the Northern Cheyenne tribe to bring solar power to the nearby reservation. And then I saw it everywhere. So here was my hero calling himself a feminist. We dont have to wait for things to turn around in real life. She starts her own organization, the Geena Davis Institute, on gender in media to keep track of the imbalance. DONAHUE: They cant really complain to their agent or their manager because theyre just going to tell them just go with it, just be quiet. Like why do I care? Well, we call the film This Changes Everything, because its about kind of why that doesnt happen. MARTIN: about women in Hollywood and the underrepresentation of women in Hollywood? GROSS: So the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has done a lot of research on the numbers. This Changes Everything has been translated into 27 languages: Arabic Presenting portraits of communities on the front lines, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. Its not about carbonits about capitalism. GROSS: So you went to the ACLU, and then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission became involved, too. Portuguese What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance well ever get to build a better world? Anyone who then told me or told any other journalist in the future, its too hard, no, its not. A parallel issue to what we've been talking about - we've been talking about inclusion of women - parallel issue is the predatory behavior of certain men in Hollywood - directors, actors, heads of companies. MARTIN: Do you think its because your initial focus was on kids television? MARTIN: But there are a number of women who are interviewed in this film whose careers have been damaged by speaking out. DAVIS: Absolutely, yes. He was the photographer for "Soul Train" and took photos for Jet, Ebony and the black-owned LA newspaper Soul. I thought, this is incredibly unfair, and I don't want other people deciding that I have to work less, you know, and taking away opportunities. By Joel Horwood. Maleeha Lodhi joins the program to explain tensions between Pakistan and India. MARTIN: But Geena, this has to have happened to you throughout your career? And I had spent so much time in a field where you're measured by people's judgment, you know, where, you know, you're approved of by others' opinions rather than factual merit. DONAHUE: I started the film a year before I actually asked Geena to come on board. Melachrini, a housewife in Northern Greece where economic crisis is being used to justify mining and drilling projects that threaten the mountains, seas, and tourism economy. So I had been very unathletic as a kid. DAVIS: Not at all. Directed by Avi Lewis (AFI Festival award-winner The Take) and inspired by the New York Times-bestselling book by Naomi Klein, the feature documentary This Changes Everything will launch in 2015. So I think that's a big change that's happened. Actress Geena Davis rallies Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and others in this . Or did you think, oh, it's me - no one wants me anymore? So I figured, well, I mean, what were the odds anyway I was going to be in a Sydney Pollack movie with Dustin Hoffman? This Changes Everything is, improbably, Kleins most optimistic book. GROSS: This is the equal opportunity law. GROSS: So what did you learn being on set? Yeah. You know, it was, like, an amazing introduction. And her actions led to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation into systemic discrimination against women directors. Look at what FX did. So what impact do you think it had both on audiences but also on Hollywood? And this is in every sector of society, its the same story. Of the top 100 grossing films of 2017, male-lead characters received twice as much screen time as female leads. And, you know, being harassed and all kinds of things going on, being not listened to, talked down to, all that stuff. And her actions led to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation into systemic discrimination against women directors in Hollywood. DONAHUE: Well, two things. This Changes Everything Review: Hollywoods Men, Called to Action, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/movies/this-changes-everything-review.html. Channeling the hurried nature of a TV docuseries edited to cover an extremely broad topic in a limited amount of time, the first act layers a lot of too-brief sound bites albeit from an impressive array of influential women, including Reese Witherspoon and Shonda Rhimes over movie clips emphasizing the prevalence of machismo and misogyny (The Godfather, for example) to almost dizzying effect. GROSS: In "A League Of Their Own." And I just want an excuse to be able to do that (laughter). He said no, that's the whole point is competing. A film that brings our peril into focus and what we might learn from despair. So they looked east to the banks to basically the patriarchal systems in the east and so they created the studio system in the west. Suddenly, they could see what they were doing, and weve yet to leave any meeting where somebody doesnt say, you just changed my project. Copyright 2019 NPR. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. We have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. Copy may not be in its final form. I get to be a doctor. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone, listen up, please. Jyothi, a matriarch in Andhra Pradesh, India who sings sweetly and battles fiercely along with her fellow villagers, fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant that will destroy a life-giving wetland. I was very upset and angry at that happening to me. So Geena, will you just tell us what the title is referring to? Most fascinating is an examination of the six women who in 1979 founded the Directors Guild of Americas Womens Steering Committee, which sought to investigate the hiring practices of studios. Nobody complained about anything because you felt that it would damage your career. Here it is. And so it's just a battle with yourself the whole time. DONAHUE: Yes. She's featured in the movie and as an executive producer of the film. MARTIN: In the age of silent films, women directed a lot of films. Once it finally begins to focus on the mission, however, This Changes Everything not only becomes engrossing but reveals itself as a crucial cri de coeur. I haven't really ever had to describe what it's about. So it was so horrifying to me that we would be doing this to kids that I decided I had to try to do something. And when we looked at - when we first looked at TV shows, kids - the ratio of male to female characters on kids programs, specifically made for them, had the worst ratio of male to female characters. You say in almost 100 years, only one woman has won an academy award for best director. Theres a lot of talk about change and theres a lot more content being made but a lot of the diversity that happens in content is happening at the lower pay levels. Netflix | Apple TV | Amazon Video | Vudu | FandangoNOW | Kanopy | Hoopla, Directed by: Tom Donahue But were not hearing womens voices or seeing the stories told through the female gaze when there are so few female directors. Determined to provide a ray of light for those under her care, a young nurse navigates the world of mental health and the diverse stories surrounding it. . But the documentary "This Changes Everything" synthesizes all that data along with interviews from a truly mind-boggling array of A-listers both in front of and behind the camera to create a damning portrait of Hollywood's systematic sexism and discrimination. Where's her bathing suit stuff? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was very lucky because Greys Anatomy was developed under the network presence. Nothing is certain. MARTIN: Have you felt your career jeopardized by your unspokeness about this? And, you know, that's obviously an option that everybody can take. But the biggest reaction of all was the press saying, like the title of the movie, this is going to change everything. Theres no one they can complain to. Director Tom Donahue Stars Reese Witherspoon Mira Nair GROSS: A battle with yourself to not battle with yourself. MARTIN: So Geena, how do you stay in it though? Geena Davis and Maria Giese, welcome to FRESH AIR. I'm going to ask you to describe the premise. It was my first audition, and they had called model agencies to say, send any models who can act for an audition. Its an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Drawing on an impressive volume of research, Ms. Klein savages the idea that we will be saved by new technologies or by an incremental shift away from fossil fuels: Both approaches, she argues, are forms of denial . MORETZ: The biggest part of the movie is when she gets her period for the first time in the shower. I think the big advantage was that people who make kids entertainment do it because they care about kids. In 2014, the book won the Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction, Canadas most prestigious award for non-fiction. Finnish GROSS: Geena Davis, let me bring you back into the conversation. The result is the most momentous and contentious environmental book since Silent Spring. When Dani Arnold broke Ueli Steck's speed record climbing the Eiger in 2011, it sparked a duel between them across the six great north faces of the Alps. The women have guns. Greek You know, I mean, both are kind of unattainable. Variety: Geena Davis Talks This Changes Everything Doc and Conscious Gender Bias in Behind-the-Scenes Hiring, Good Deed Entertainment: This Changes Everything (2019) Exclusive Interview with Geena Davis & Director Tom Donahue, PBS SoCal: Interview with Geena Davis and Tom Donahue on This Changes Everything, Deadline: This Changes Everything Review: Compelling Documentary Tackles Hollywood Gender Inequality Head-On, The New York Times: This Changes Everything Review: Hollywoods Men, Called to Action. Kumi Naidoo,Former Director at Greenpeace International, Genuinely moving By what name was This Changes Everything (2015) officially released in India in English? She braids together the science, psychology, geopolitics, economics, ethics and activism that shape the climate question. They could say, what was I doing? But for the most part, I saw appalling gender imbalance. And that's what I set my mind to do. I always say go through the script and change it. [1] An examination of sexism in the Hollywood film industry, the film interviews a variety of actresses and women filmmakers on their experiences in the industry. Still. So theres something really deep and systemic going on. But how can you change the world if you've taken yourself out of it? When did things start to slow down in your acting career? This Changes Everything 2018 TV-PG 1 h 36 m IMDb RATING 7.7 /10 1.8K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 1:59 4 Videos 19 Photos Documentary An investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry. And I was horrified. Women are socialized to go along with the dominant patriarch. But what I did, also as Geena, was start looking at the numbers, and I started to notice that only 4% of studio features were directed by women, and only 13% of episodic TV shows were directed by women. This documentary on climate change and its causes focuses largely on stories of human connection to the land, some who try to control the land, while others who see humans as temporary stewards of the land to pass to future generations. DAVIS: Well, I definitely see a big shift happening in Hollywood in the past couple of years since #MeToo and Time's Up. SANDRA OH: Shonda was able to make half of her cast not white. Downloads only available on ad-free plans. Russian And so it kind of made sense in that way. Klein and Lewis paint a picture of a post-fossil-fueled, post-capitalist future that seems not only within reach, Profoundly, embarrassing few. All but one of the women were interviewed for this film, and Donahue takes his time to carefully lay out the details and takeaways of their efforts (which led the D.G.A. Catalan GIESE: Yes, Title VII, which was written into law in 1964 by President Johnson. At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was first runner-up for the People's Choice Award: Documentaries. In this part of the interview, I'm going to talk more with Davis about her own movie career. MARTIN: To that point, heres a scene from the film which speaks with that with Kimberly Pierce, the director, and Chloe Grace Moretz. Did you think of it as there not being enough roles for women in their 40s? So and it wasnt really until after Me Too and all that happened that we all realized, this is different now. We should be showing kids that boys and girls share the same bicycle. GROSS: The one with the feathers and DAVIS: The one with the feathers and rhinestones? And I think most people and certainly I did assume that kids entertainments are harmless, that they're - they might even be good for kids. And they started to reach out to interview many, many women, as many women directors as they could. Against the backdrop of Greece in crisis, a powerful social movement rises. Danish Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Globe & Mail Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Naomi Klein's narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. GROSS: And you even competed to be on the Olympic archery team. Geena Davis is an actress who starred in such films as "A League Of Their Own" and "Thelma & Louise." This is FRESH AIR. It was night and day, where before, they might say, hey, "Beetlejuice" or something. 1 hr 30 min. 47%. MARTIN: And they just cant believe that it is what it is. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You directed an episode of it. Emerging economies in the developing world have tried to follow the western model for economic prosperity, with arguably the most marked example of the negative consequences being in China where many cities are continually shrouded in smog, some children in those cities who have never seen a blue sky. I was a feminist since I was 10-years-old because I came from a very right-wing family. It was once there was a four in front of my age, and DAVIS: You know, I had heard about that for a long time, that people said that things change when you turn 40 or when you're in your 40s, but I didn't expect it to be literal. Norwegian Although a large part of this documentary focuses on the fact that female directors do not get work and have trouble getting hired, and the director of this film. GROSS: And I just think it's so interesting that we're having this conversation about women's empowerment and inclusion of women, and the first part of your career revolves around being in your underwear (laughter). . Chinese Complex Thelma & Louise was supposed to have done it. You putting men in charge basically driving women and people of color out. Ms. Klein is aware of the intractability of the problems she describes, but she manages optimism nonetheless., Klein is a brave and passionate writer who always deserves to be heard, and this is a powerful and urgent book., If global warming is a worldwide wake-up call, were all pretty heavy sleepers . Author interview. This Changes Everything is a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core free market ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems. And so I never asked any questions, and I didn't know that you didn't have to come every day. How did you take up archery? Well, it meant a little ironically. But so I think that will change and I think it will impact society, that life will imitate art. Co-Producers: Jessicya Materano, Robin Kelleher Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. What is the connection? Her work led to an ongoing EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, investigation into systemic discrimination against women directors, as well as an ACLU campaign against discrimination. My guest Geena Davis starred in two movies about female empowerment - "Thelma & Louise" and "A League Of Their Own." This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. A star-studded documentary about gender inequality in film and TV is equal parts history lesson and constructive criticism. Since then it has been shown 1000s of times in community screenings around the world. Why dont things change? And it hasnt changed in all that time. And they didn't ask - after I read the part, they didn't ask to see my bathing suit. . Norwegian Naomi Kleins fourth book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate was published in September 2014 and was an instant New York Times and international bestseller. And so it was something they had no idea they were doing, and the data changed everything for them. A new documentary explores how women in Hollywood are pushing for more representation in front of and behind the camera. And then after about a year and a half, they told me they were going to pursue it. TV-PG. A look at seven communities around the world with the proposition that we can seize the crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better. . Its the chivalry of the 21st century.. Which is why none of them appeared in this film? As the actress and activist Geena Davis puts it in This Changes Everything, a new documentary about Hollywoods pervasive gender inequalities, each of those highly successful films with female leads (and in some cases, female filmmakers) had been expected to expand the opportunities for women, or so the media narrative went with each release. And - but nobody, and least of all him, nobody ever said, you realize you don't have to come every day? In 2004, she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. And your role is as the entertainment director of a casino. -Alice Walker, author and activist, Purposely unsettling Ultimately encouraging GROSS: What did you like about archery? And I was - well, I was mostly thrilled that my first job was not playing, you know, a corpse in a morgue on a soap opera or something. Yet we can seize this existential crisis to transform our failed economic system into something radically better. Most importantly, the film seeks pathways and solutions from within and outside the industry, and around the world. . UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing funny here. So do you have any idea where things stand? And for me, the word feminist was a bad word in my house. DAVIS: In "A League Of Their Own," yeah. But I loved it. And you wouldnt know it because of how it turns out, four percent post his school. And that was an extraordinary triumph. GEENA DAVIS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: Thank you. And if you're just joining us, my guest is actor Geena Davis and director Maria Giese. And why does that matter? In 2018, 92 percent of the directors of the top 250 domestic releases were men. From Thelma & Louise to A League of Their Own, the Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis made her name with her strong female characters. . DAVIS: It was very specific, actually. And hopefully, young boys will see that a male-directed this and think I can do that too. I didn't want to try any sports because I was - I call it physically shy. We've been talking with actor Geena Davis and director Maria Giese about the campaign for more representation of women behind and in front of the camera in movies and TV. What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we'll ever get to build a better world? DAVIS: Exactly. And I was sure they must be right and waiting for this fabulous future that was coming. About the author. LANDGRAF: The minute we open our door and we say, come express it here, the work got better. So I learned through him about the equal rights amendment, about Gloria Steinem and Marlo Thomas and that girl and I became a fan of Mary Tyler Moore. You were signed to a big agency. Turkish But it didnt take her long to realize that she was the exception and not the rule. This Changes Everything (2015) Plot Showing all 3 items Jump to: Summaries (3) Summaries A look at seven communities around the world with the proposition that we can seize the crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better. Documentary. A really decent doc, but like 99% of the reviews here, I'm completely dumbfounded why they hired a MALE to direct this. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Promotional materials, trailers & welcome video. 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