Here at Archive Valley, we feel privileged to have among our users some of today’s most exciting and important documentary filmmakers. It is always special when finally the moment comes and a premiere of a production on Archive Valley has been announced. We are happy to share that this year’s Toronto Film Festival will screen the world premiere of “This changes everything” as part of their official selection. Directed by Tom Donahue and produced by Creative Chaos the feature-length documentary explores a monumentally important issue in the entertainment industry – the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women. The documentary not only provides historical context and empirical evidence about the paradigms sustaining the gender discrimination but also gives the audience hope that change is possible. Here’s the director’s powerful statement about the driving forces behind the production and how he succeeded to show that strong calls to action can be triggered both in the industry and in the society as a whole:
“As a male director, I was keenly aware of the responsibility I had in making this film and that there were too few men speaking up on the issue at all. It affirmed my belief that true change cannot happen if men don’t step up on the issue. As Meryl Streep says in the film, “Change can only happen when men take a stand.” Gender inequality is a problem that our entire society must confront, not just those on the receiving end of the injustice. I intended this film not only as an investigation into workplace discrimination in Hollywood but also as a call to men to be part of the solution. Real and lasting change can only come when grassroots activism works in concert with the powers at the top, whatever the personal or institutional cost. As Melissa Goodman at the ACLU says in the film, “If you are a person with hiring power and you’re not actively working to hire women, then you are part of the problem.
In the first year of making the film, we were introduced to the work of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Through Geena and her team, I came to understand the outsized impact the disparity within the small town of Hollywood has on the larger world. When half of a society’s population does not have a voice, the entire culture is degraded. Leaving it awash in a toxic masculinity that rests power in people who are not working in the interest of everyone.
We were fortunate to have many female and male power players in Hollywood sit before our cameras. We had the added fortune of witnessing a new wave feminist movement explode onto the scene while we were shooting. The movement has galvanized the women of Hollywood to take concrete steps toward change. There is growing consensus that the time for talk is over but this is not necessarily new. The film’s title comes out of my second interview with Geena when she speaks of hugely successful female-driven films that exceeded expectations and that many believed would finally cause things to change… and then nothing did. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING is not meant as just a showcase of the problem but as a call to action to further the cause of the radical change necessary for us to move forward as a culture and as a country.”
The documentary includes interviews with Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Rashida Jones, Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain, Tiffany Haddish, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Judd Apatow. Although archival footage was included only in the long version of the film, it proved to be an essential tool for building the narrative. In the director’s words: “Providing historical context is a big part of what we do here at CreativeChaos and Archive Valley proved immensely helpful. It was incredibly beneficial to be able to deep dive into footage from the silent film era, suffragette Movement, second wave feminism…This archive footage helped us immensely with the film’s structure, in bolstering our argument.”
For those of you who are attending TIFF, “This changes everything premieres” on Saturday, Sept 8, 2018 in Roy Thompson Hall, with a specially organized Q&A session after the screening. Not to be missed!