Docu: Hollywood stars balance the lack of parity

02.18.2020

Meryl Streep , Cate Blanchett , Natalie Portman , Reese Witherspoon , Jessica Chastain , Chloë Grace Moretz … At least one strong news item was needed to bring together such an insane cast in a film. Director Tom Donahue worked three years to deliver his incredible documentary Everything Can Change - What if women mattered in Hollywood?

Under-representation of sex and ethnicities, education for parity, tangible solutions ... With its poignant testimonies and its stunning statistical studies, Everything can change may well turn your brain and affirm your convictions. A titanic work of public utility, to be put in the hands of all skeptics of feminism and adults in the making.

Queen Geena Davis

Among all the slew of big names in cinema, the star of the documentary remains undoubtedly its executive producer, Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis . The one who buried her hands the farthest in the sludge of sexism delivers a didactic and moving testimony.

One morning, struck to note that the cartoons which obsessed her children systematically had a male character in the title role ( SpongeBob , Shrek , Nemo ...), Louise's Thelma began her research and founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media .

A painstaking job of first identifying all female roles and their allotted speaking times in a script, which has produced the largest database on male domination in the entertainment industry for over twenty years. Her story turns out to be as terrible as it is fascinating, with the benevolent quote as a mantra: “ What is good for women is good for the world ”.

Do you know the Bechdel test?

The documentary also features a Swedish cinema director. It uses the Bechdel test (named after comic book designer Alison Bechdel) to determine which films it will choose to show or not in its theaters.

To validate the test, a film must include at least two female characters identified by name, who develop a dialogue, and whose discussion concerns something other than a male character. Think about it, the list isn't that obvious, even among the cult movies: haro on The Lord of the Rings , Avatar , The Big Lebowski and most of Star Wars , but kudos to Pretty Woman , Jurassic Park , 12 Years a Slave. and Alien . To meditate !