Miss Representation is generating big buzz at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and the panel after the premiere shared powerful insights from this documentary. This Levi’s sponsored event featured Jennifer Siebel Newsom (screenwriter/director, Miss Representation), Geena Davis, Gloria Steinem, Barbara J. Berg (Author), Jim Steyer (Common Sense Media) and Pat Mitchell (President/CEO Paley Center for Media and Former President/CEO of PBS) as the moderator. It’s no surprise that all Sundance showings for this film are sold out because Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s film includes important messages about how women are portrayed by the media and interviews with role models such as Katie Couric, Jane Fonda, Lisa Ling (OWN Producer), Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Margaret Cho (Comedian), Daphne Zuniga, Paul Haggis and many other female and male influencers.

During the Miss Representation panel, Geena Davis shared her passion for empowering women, what it was like to play the first female president on TV, and results of a recent study about how women are portrayed by the media to children 11 and under. Geena shared, “Consider this. In G-rated movies, the female characters wear the same amount of sexually revealing clothing as the characters in R-rated movies. So what message are we sending to both girls and boys at a very very vulnerable age…if the female characters are one-dimensional, side-lined, hyper-sexualized or simply not there at all? What we’re saying to them is that women and girls have far less value in our society than men and boys.” To hear more insights from Geena Davis, watch my panel YouTube video: Miss Representation Panel at Sundance 2011.

With 51% of the US population being female, this documentary is a call-to-action for both men and women to change the media perceptions of women. Pat Mitchell closed the panel by asking everyone to get involved.  Pat added, “The one thing that Jenn’s film reminds us of,…is gender is not a zero sum game... We’re not talking about women win, men loose…Women’s roles change, men’s get worse. No. We are all in this together.”

On the next day, Women in Film (WIF) from Los Angeles held a brunch where Jennifer Siebel Newsom spoke on their panel about her film, Miss Representation. The theme for this WIF event was “Fearlessness.” Their panel featured female leaders in the entertainment business including: Joslyn Barnes (executive producer, The Black Power Mixtape), Karin Chien (producer, Circumstance), Annie Roney (Managing Director, ro*co films international), Susan Saladoff (director, Hot Coffee), Cathy Schulman (Producer/President of Mandalay Vision and WIF, Salvation Boulevard, Another Happy Day), Sandra Valde-Hansen (Cinematographer, KABOOM!) and Moderated by Lucy Webb (producer for WIF.)

After coaching both men and women how to build self-esteem as a Life and Love Coach, these panels hit close to home for me. My latest project, Great Life Great Love, is about helping singles build a Great Life to attract Great Love. We all need to feel good inside, and it’s important that the media fuels confidence over fear. Levi’s Strauss has also launched Shape What’s To Come, a global online community of women changing the world. We all need to help women (and men) be more fearless by giving more compliments, acknowledging people for contributions, and portray smart and successful women role models in the media. To learn more, visit http://misrepresentation.org.

© Liz H Kelly, Great Love Reporter, Great Life Great Love, 2011