Activism takes the stage at the Opera House

People travelled from across Muskoka to express their support for an end to violence against women

MUSKOKA - About 100 people gathered at the Gravenhurst Opera House on Friday, March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day at the third annual Women in Film Festival.
MC Penny Varney took to the stage to explain the United Nations theme for this year’s day of action was: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.”
She said the theme in 2012 was “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures,” in support of the United Nations’ first International Day of the Girl on Oct. 11, 2012.
People travelled from across Muskoka to join together in Gravenhurst to express their support for an end to violence against women.
The first half of the night included two short animated films from area high school students.
Dream, made by Huntsville High School’s Marla Brown, featured a variety of students describing their dreams as the flights of fantasy were simultaneously animated in a thought bubble on the screen.
Snow White, by student Hannah Elizabeth, pondered the wisdom of biting the poisoned apple.
Malala Yousufzai: Our Hero was a short documentary chronicling the reactions of Terri Howell’s Grade 6/7 VK Greer class to the shooting of a young Pakistani girl as she sat on her school bus. The girl was standing up for her right to attend school and as a result suffered the attack. The students’ message was to suggest everyone “stand up” for women’s rights.
Five of the fledgling Port Sydney filmmakers were on hand to introduce their film and give a short speech on their feelings that activism is everyone’s responsibility.
The final film of the first half was Flawed, an animated short film by Andrea Dorfman, in which the filmmaker reflects on her “flaw” – the size of her nose. In the end she decides that our flaws can also be our strengths and that as we embrace them, we gain self-confidence as well as self-knowledge.
The audience milled around the lobby of the Opera House during intermission, chatting and sampling a table of baked goods and appetizers provided by Savour Muskoka.
The second half of the evening was a feature documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Miss Representation.
In the film, the American actress (now filmmaker) seeks to expose ways in which mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in that country.
“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 three per cent of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65 per cent of women and girls have disordered eating behaviours,” according to the film’s press release.
There are stark interviews with teenage girls, politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics. Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem express their disdain for inequality as the filmmaker reveals statistics about the under-representation of women in American culture, both corporate and political.
The festival was sponsored by the Muskoka YWCA, Fine Films Gravenhurst, Spinning Reels in Bracebridge and Reel Alternatives Huntsville.

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