OMG: Reel Grrls' media justice videos now available on DVD and On Demand!

Remember how Reel Grrls made headlines last May when we tweeted about Comcast's hiring of then-FCC Commissioner Baker? Well, in case you missed the conclusion to the story, the youth in our summer apprenticeship program produced advocacy videos about media justice and reform issues in response to the dispute. The videos are AMAZING and now they're available on our compilation DVD, Generation of Consolidation!

This week our story has taken another interesting turn. We're excited to announce that starting this week, Generation of Consolidation is available on Comcast On Demand locally in Seattle and Spokane! After Comcast responded to the press coverage last spring by trying to reinstate the pledged funds of $18,000 for our program, our fearless leader, Malory Graham, declined their offer and instead suggested they support our freedom of speech by hosting our media justice videos on the cable network - and they listened. On October 27th, 2011, we signed a contract for our youth media to be hosted on Comcast from now until February, 2012. You can find the videos On Demand with this path: Get Local > Around the Sound > Reel Grrls.

We're so excited to expand the reach of our videos to living rooms across Washington State. Our next goal is to get Generation of Consolidation in as many schools and libraries across the nation as possible - if you want to see this happen too, consider a donation to help our distribution efforts!

This is a huge win for youth voices around the nation - we're so grateful for our individual supporters, Free Press, and MAG-Net who made these videos possible! #MediajusticeNOW!

Happy Halloween from Reel Grrls!

Before there was Twilight, before there was True Blood, before there was The Vampire Diaries, there was Thicker Than Water!

Happy Halloween from the Reel Grrls team!

Reel Grrls Countdown to Halloween: Day 3

Only a few days left until one our favorite holidays, Halloween! Today's video is Max on Max, a short horror film takes place in a movie theater and leaves you questioning who is sane and who is not...

Halloween Countdown: Day 4

Today's spooky movie is from our 2011 summer animation camp and created by 2 sets of twins ages 11 and 12! Watch the what happens to a cat burglar that hoards stolen goods in Bad Cats Die Young.

Reel Grrls Countdown to Halloween: Day 5

Today's spooky movie was created in the Centrum Young Artists Project Film Class in June 2009! This thriller follows three film students looking for a place to shoot their horror movie.

Reel Grrls Countdown to Halloween: Day 6

6 more days until Halloween!

Today's Reel Grrls featured video is the truly scary Horror Movie (2007) which uses the genre to highlight the fact that most of the victims in horror films are women, perpetuating the abuse of women and girls in real life.

Reel Grrls Countdown to Halloween: Day 7

Halloween is only a week away and this year Reel Grrls is celebrating with a daily countdown by opening our vault of youth horror videos for your terror/enjoyment!

Without further ado, we present you with The Lost Sister, created in 2009:

The Lost Sister from ReelGrrls Workshops on Vimeo.

RG rocks the Film Festival scene!

Reel Grrls films have been invited to screen at some very exciting places recently! Here's a small sampling:

Last week RG filmmaker Shannon MacIntyre represented at The 15th Annual Tower of Youth Film Festival/North American Youth Film & Education Day in Sacramento, California. The animated film she created with her sister Kia MacIntyre and Jooniper Morales, Mamma Knows Best, was featured there and Shannon spoke about it afterwards at a panel that was televised live (check her out on the big screen in the photo below)!

This coming weekend, Reel Grrls is all up in the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (SLGFF)! On Saturday Oct 22nd at 12:30pm at Pacific Place Cinema catch Relativity, a short documentary exploring gender and gender norms. The video was created in last spring's Lights Camera Reel Grrls intro program, in which we partnered with NOVA highschool's social justice class. Filmmaker Angeline Blattenbauer will be in attendance, and if we're lucky we may also see co-directors Finbar and Ellen Vickrey in the Q&A session after the screening.

In that same program, you'll also see The Cherdonna and Lou Show: the Movie, a film created by Reel Grrls staff and mentors for last year's International Documentary Challenge (a timed filmmaking competition). This lively experimental doc was featured as a finalist in the competition, and tells the story of two Seattle dancers that defy classification. Buy tickets to "Local Produce," the Saturday screening featuring both films, right here.

But that's not all!! On Sunday at SLGFF the films created this summer in Reel Queer Youth, a partnership program between Reel Grrls and Three Dollar Bill Cinema that teaches filmmaking to queer and allied youth of all genders, will screen at 12pm at Pacific Place (tickets here). The filmmakers will be in attendance, and Reel Queer Youth Tshirts will be on sale. These films are truly incredible, you do not want to miss them!

Next month, Reel Grrls also has the honor of being featured in the Teen Division of the Young People's Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. Five of our films will be screening there, including the animated Girl With Birds and the short documentary Who We Are:


Who We Are from ReelGrrls Workshops on Vimeo.

Who We Are was created in our very first Documentary Arts Camp last spring by five young women from Mt. Vernon. In the film, the girls tell their stories of what it's like to be a migrant worker. They're currently in the process of expanding these stories into a longer documentary. We can't wait to see it when it's finished! With the support of their community, all five Mt. Vernon filmmakers will be traveling to Portland to attend the festival. Dova Isabel Castañeda Zilly, writer and co-creator of Girl With Birds, will also be in attendance there. It should be awesome!

We hope to see you at one of these upcoming festivals. Thanks for supporting grrl-made media!!

OMG

Have you been following the Reel Grrls/Comcast story today? Here's our side of the story, in case you missed it:



Get further details from the Washington Post.

Nikita was no Charlie's Angel

"I think that the best way to judge movies is 10 years after they're released. I don't think that the Academy Awards necessarily get it right. I think they get it wrong more often than they get it right."
-- Academy Award Winner, Matt Damon

Last week I had the honor of being a presenter for the 20/20 Awards –a ceremony held in Seattle that annually revisits the Academy Awards, using the advantage of 20 years of hindsight to re-evaluate the choices made two decades earlier.

Now in its second year, the ceremony has consistently stripped previous Academy Award winners while also donning new awards to some films that weren’t even nominated 20 years earlier. I loved the concept when I first heard about it from my friend and 20/20 founder Kris Kristensen, but then became a complete convert last year when the award for Best Documentary was given by 20/20 to Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me”—a film that wasn’t even nominated by the Academy in 1990 yet completely changed the landscape of documentary filmmaking from that date onward.

So last week, I got the opportunity to present the 20/20 award for Best Foreign Language Film. And again, the 20/20 voting syndicate stripped the original winner of this award (Journey of Hope—ever heard of it?) in favor of the French film La Femme Nikita.

La Femme Nikita wasn’t even nominated in this category 20 years ago, yet it not only has endured as a stylish piece of cinema but it opened the door for a new genre of the female action hero.

I loved this film when it came out in 1990. In 20/20 hindsight of my own life path, this film not only inspired me to launch a career committed to women being represented in the media both in front of and behind the camera (Yay Reel Grrls!) but also inspired my 20+ year training in the martial arts.

However, the film critics hated Nikita. The LA Times called it “An ultra-violent imitation of an American high tech urban thriller.” Entertainment Weekly called it “The Terminator re-imagined by French Vogue.”

While La Femme Nikita is a violent film (it is secret agent thriller after all) I believe that the real criticism was fueled by critics and audiences not being used to seeing women exercise power in the action genre in a very raw and unapologetic way. Nikita was no Charlie’s Angel—she was scrappy, tough and morally ambiguous. She was punk. Nothing like the saccharin, botoxed male-fantasy female action heroes that have been spawned by Hollywood since then. In the same way that the music industry has tried to co-opt strong women musicians, indie grrl bands like Sleater Kinney blazed a trail that can’t be commodified. Punk in sheep’s clothing doesn’t fly. Hollywood may say it likes “Bad Girls” but really it likes “Good Girls” who wear spandex.

In accepting the 20/20 Award for La Femme Nikita last week I assert that Nikita had something 20 years ago that hit a nerve and it hasn’t been seen since. Final take-away? Nikita could kick Lara Croft’s ass. Kudos to 20/20 for finally giving the icon Nikita the spotlight she deserves.