SWAN Day screening: Miss Representation
Join NYWIFT, SAG, School of Visual Arts Film department, WAM, and HerFlix at the SVA Theater for a screening of the documentary Miss Representation. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film uniquely challenges the media's limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions, and for the average woman, to feel powerful herself.
In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman's value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader. While women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures, women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.
Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics, like Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem build momentum as Miss Representation accumulates startling facts and statistics that will leave the audience shaken and armed with a new perspective.
SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day is an annual event on the last Saturday of March that celebrates women artists.
There will be a Q&A with industry leaders and reception following the movie. The event will begin with opening remarks from Reeves Lehman, Chairman of Film, Video and Animation at School of Visual Arts.
Sandra Guzmán is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience in broadcast, newspapers and magazine journalism. She is the editor in chief of Heart & Soul, a fitness, health and wellness magazine for women of color. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The New Latina’s Bible: The Modern Latina’s Guide to Love, Spirituality, Family and La Vida.
Carol Jenkins is an Emmy-winning former television journalist. Now head of her own production company, Carol Jenkins: Media, she was founding president and board member of the nonprofit The Women's Media Center. Jenkins serves on the board of AMREF USA and a committee of its international board. She is also chair of the Advisory Committee of the Black Maternal Health Project of Women's ENews and co-founder of the soon-to-be-launched social-networking enterprise CEOgrandmother. She serves on the boards of Humane Farm Animal Care and Out of the Blue Films. Her advisory board work includes The Alliance of Women Film Journalists and The Center for Partnership Studies.
Alison McDonald is a writer/director whose television writing credits include Nurse Jackie, Everybody Hates Chris and American Dad. A Fulbright Scholar and honors graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, McDonald is also a veteran director of short films, including The Life & Times of Little Jimmy B., which aired on PBS, and won a Directors Guild of America Student Filmmaker Award. McDonald's other awards include fellowships from New York Women in Film & Television and the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently studying funny business at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center in New York City.
Terrie M. Williams—one of Ebony magazine’s Power 150 for Activism and Woman’s Day magazine 50 Women On A Mission To Change The World—is an advocate for change and empowerment. She launched The Terrie Williams Agency in 1988 with Eddie Murphy and Miles Davis as her first clients and has continued to represent some of the biggest personalities and businesses in entertainment, sports, business and politics. She also founded the nonprofit The Stay Strong Foundation. Her book Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting recounts her personal struggles with depression and the impact the stigma of mental illnesses has on the African-American community led to a national mental health advocacy campaign in collaboration with the Ad Council and SAMHSA.
Savanna Washington (moderator) works as a producer and director for her independent production company Aardvark Alley Films, which produces video content for clients in addition to independently producing documentary and narrative work. Washington is currently in post-production on her feature film, Finding Home, and is in production on a feature-length documentary on urban greening. She is a Colin Powell/NY Life Graduate Fellow, the first filmmaker to be honored. She received her MFA in Media Arts from CUNY, where she also teaches video production. She was recently awarded a Puffin Grant for her documentary project.
Produced by Madeline McCray, leslie Shreve and Savanna Washington. Special thanks to Reeves Lehman and Jennifer Phillips from the School of Visual Arts.
Use the hashtags #NYWIFT and #MissRep in your tweets!
Sponsored by USB Wealth Management and
Last updated: Mar. 30, 2012 
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