HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 25 (UPI) — Queen Latifah, Jessica Chastain, Juliette Bincohe, Freida Pinto and other Hollywood veterans have launched a nonprofit production company focused on female empowerment in media.
We Do It Together will reportedly partner with both male and female filmmakers, producers and actors to develop projects that provide continuous opportunities for expanded representation of women and minorities in television, cinema and more.
Catherine Hardwicke, Hany Abu-Assad, Zhang Ziyi, Amma Asante are other stars named as members of the organization’s advisory board.
The company’s founding comes during a sweet spot in feminist discourse after the Sony hack prompted critics, industry leaders and celebrities to delve deeper into the issue of sexism in Hollywood.
According to a report from the Director’s Guild of America last fall, women obtain only 16 percent of TV directing jobs.
A recent report from the University of Southern California deemed the entertainment industry — especially that in Hollywood — still a “straight, white, boys club.” (Click here to read the story)
We Do It Together will reportedly look to fundraise through grants, government help, corporate sponsors and individual donations in order to fund its independent productions for cinema, TV and more.
The new company will also join the United Nations third Annual Power of Collaboration Global Summit next week in order to gain exposure.
“We hope in the future we won’t have a need for dedicated niche financing for films by and about women,” said founder Chiara Tilesi.
“All of us involved in We Do It Together recognize the vital role of the media and entertainment in both shaping and challenging societal norms. Film has always possessed the power to defy convention and change hearts and minds, and this power and potential must be harnessed to challenge the current archaic norms related to women within the entertainment industry,”
“We feel that the way to make this a reality is to give women from around the world a concrete way to express themselves and an on-going structure that will ensure that these stories will be financed and distributed,” Tilesi concluded.
