''Miss Representation'' is a 2011 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

written, directed, and produced by

Jennifer Siebel Newsom Jennifer Lynn Siebel Newsom (born June 19, 1974) is an American documentary filmmaker and actress who is the current first partner of California as the wife of governor Gavin Newsom. She is the director, writer, and producer of the film '' Mis ...

. The film explores how

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought. Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes ma ...

contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions by circulating limited and often disparaging portrayals of women. The film premiered in the documentary category at the 2011

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

. The film includes interviews with prominent women in media, such as

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Jane Fonda, various accolades including two ...

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

, and

Katie Couric Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. From 2013 to 2017, ...

, who discuss why their personal experiences have made them passionate about better portrayals of women in media. Siebel Newsom also uses this film to further her social action campaigns through The Representation Project, which was founded due to her frustration with the relationship between the under-representation of women in media and the under-representation of women in American politics.

Synopsis

The film interweaves stories from teenage girls with interviews to give an inside look at the media and its message that underscores young women need and want positive

role model A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. The term ''role model'' is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who hypothesized that individuals compare themselves ...

s, and that the media has thus far neglected its unique opportunity to provide them. The film includes a social action campaign to address change in policy, education and call for socially responsible business. The movie brought along a lot of positive movement and encourages those who viewed the film to take the pledge against gender misrepresentations by using hashtags like #RepresentHer and #DisruptTheNarrative.

Screenings

The film previewed on October 18, 2010, at an awards luncheon hosted by the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

Commission on the Status of Women. The film premiered on January 22, 2011 at the

, followed by screenings at the Athena Film Festival at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in February.

Cast

The cast consists of over 109 subjects, appearing as themselves. Raw footage of teenage girls telling their stories is shown alongside direct interviews with a multitude of influential celebrities, prominent political figures, activists, and accomplished filmmakers. These interviews included Katie Couric,

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Un ...

Lisa Ling Lisa J. Ling (born August 30, 1973) is an American journalist, television personality, and author. She is currently the host of ''This Is Life with Lisa Ling '' on CNN. Previously, she was a reporter on Channel One News, a co-host on the ABC day ...

Geena Davis Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American businesswoman and investor. She is an information technology executive, and co-founder of Sunshine Contacts. Mayer formerly served as the president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!, a p ...

Jean Kilbourne Jean Kilbourne (born January 4, 1943) is an American public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is known for her work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. She is also credited ...

Cory Booker Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. se ...

, Rachel Maddow,

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama '' Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include ''He Got Game'' (1998), ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

Jim Steyer James Pearson Steyer (born 1956) is an American children's advocate, civil rights attorney, professor and author. He founded Common Sense Media, an organization that "provides education and advocacy to families to promote safe technology and media ...

and Jackson Katz.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack includes music from Metric, Alan Moorhouse, Van Phillips, Jules Larson, Chinatown, and Randi Skyland. * " Help, I'm Alive" —

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathe ...

* "

Gold Guns Girls "Gold Guns Girls" is the fourth single from Canadian rock group Metric (band), Metric's fourth studio album ''Fantasies (album), Fantasies''. The lyrics were inspired by the 1983 movie, ''Scarface (1983 film), Scarface''. The song was released i ...

" - Metric * "In The Swing" - Alan Moorhouse * "Tom Fool" - Van Phillips * "I Want It All" - Jules Larson * "Drive Me Crazy" - Chinatown * "This Is My Life" - Randi Skyland

Recognition

The

Oprah Winfrey Network Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is an American multinational basic cable channel jointly owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Studios that launched on January 1, 2011, replacing the Discovery Health Channel. The network is led by talk show ho ...

acquired broadcast rights for the film following its premiere. ; ''Audience Award'' from * 2011 Palo Alto International Film Festival * 2011 Sonoma Film Festival ; ''Official Selection'' at * 2011 Atlanta Film Festival * 2011 Dallas Film Festival * 2011 Denver Film Festival * 2011 Newport Beach Film Festival * 2011 New Zealand Film Festival * 2011 San Francisco Film Festival * 2011 Silver Docs Film Festival *

2011 Sundance Film Festival The 27th annual Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20, 2011 until January 30, 2011 in Park City, Utah, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival opened with five screenings, one from each c ...

; Other * 2011 Maui Film Festival: ''Movies Matter Award'' * 2011: Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival * 2012 Gracie Allen Awards: ''Outstanding Documentary'' * Won WFCC Award for Best Theatrically Unreleased Movie by or About Women

Advocacy efforts

Miss Representation was the inspiration behind Siebel Newsom's Representation Project, a non-profit organization using celebrity ambassadors to spread the messages of the film to the community and media. This organization was founded in April 2011 and has since created the award-winning documentary '' The Mask You Live In'', as well as built an online platform to provide tools and information for how to make a difference in your community. A call-to-action campaign grew out of the film, including a Twitter campaign to call out offensive media, a crowd-sourced list of media that represent women and girls fairly, a virtual internship program to recruit representatives, guides for media representation conversation starters, guides for electing females for political office, weekly action alerts, gender equality principles and resources & tools for taking action.

Filming locations

Most filming took place in Los Angeles, California and San Francisco, California.

Online activism

In March 2017 for the International Women's Day, Jennifer Siebel Newsom and The Representation Project (formerly “Miss Representation.org”) launched a campaign against hate speech ("#NotBuyingIt") asking

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

to stop buying ads on website

Breitbart ''Breitbart News Network'' (known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentary ...

and using the crowdspeaking platform Daycause to create a tweetstorm. The #NotBuyingIt campaign is a movement meant to empower others and call attention to the misrepresentations of men and women in the media. Siebel Newsom encourages youth to go against dangerous and negative messages that come along with the influence of the media. Stereotypes that the media promotes is what Siebel Newsom hopes the youth will overcome through the campaign. So far more than 60 million people have been inspired with the campaign and have expressed their views on Twitter. Siebel Newsom wants to make it as inclusive as possible for anyone involved in the campaign. There are many small things people can do each day. Siebel Newsom claims that they lead to a larger impact. Siebel Newsom believes that standing up to the injustices seen in daily lives is how we are going to put a stop to it. Another action Siebel Newsom wants to take is adding media-literacy classes in schools. By doing this, Siebel Newsom believes this is another way to educate the youth about how to understand the media and its messages.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1784538, Miss Representation American documentary films American independent films Documentary films about women Documentary films about the media Documentary films about feminism 2011 documentary films 2011 films Women in the United States 2010s feminist films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films