BENTONVILLE -- Film industry-related discussions at the Bentonville Film Festival this week centered on the impact of the event and others like it.
Among the lasting effects of festival are inspiring more women to take leadership positions in the film industry, getting more women and culturally diverse actors on screen nationwide and affecting the next generation's expectation of equality in media.
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Find additional photos of the Bentonville Film Festival at www.nwadg.com/photos
The mission of championing women and more diverse voices in media attracted Bruce Dern, known most recently for the film Nebraska, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including one for Dern as best actor.
"It's for girls who don't get a shot to get their stuff seen ... and it's about time that happens," Dern said earlier this week. This year he's leading a discussion at the festival about the great actresses he's worked with, including Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe. "I'm thrilled to be a part (of women getting to) write direct, broadcast and make it happen."
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media reports 31 percent of speaking characters in top grossing films are female and 13 percent of leading characters are people of color. Davis is the founder of the institute and a co-founder of the Bentonville Film Festival.
The institute also reports only 7 percent of film directors are female.
Without avenues such the Bentonville Film Festival, many women may not get their break into the film industry, said Nia Vardalos, screenwriter and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its sequel.
"I'm living proof that if we don't write our own material, we can be left behind," Vardalos said last week. Her film career started when she dismissed an agent who swore she couldn't market a Greek woman. "Events such as BFF are a perfect example of women taking matters into our own hands and hiring each other. Geena has found a way to show that there are diverse voices that are accessible and have something to say."
The festival's Diversity and Inclusion Summit brought the leadership of several large companies including Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola under the same roof Tuesday to discuss how they could create welcoming work environments for women and people of color.
Trevor Drinkwater, the other co-founder of the Bentonville Film Festival, said during a Wednesday news conference the summit brought together key executives to talk about why diversity and inclusion are important. He said those leaders can take that idea back to their jobs to affect change."Each BFF panel ends with a call to action, a plan ... to set a platform in motion," he said.
Ben Hasan, diversity and inclusion officer for Wal-Mart, participated in the summit in part because the goals of festival align with those of the world's second largest retailer, only behind Amazon.
"When individuals are respected, they will perform better," Hasan said. He added the summit made it clear the community is passionate about the topic of diversity.
"It was at times emotional. A bond was made in the room, which happens [when] you can have an open conversation, gather awareness and do something about it," he said.
Wal-Mart helped the Bentonville Film Festival earn the title of only the festival with guaranteed distribution by providing an outlet for its movies. The top three winning films are distributed in DVD form to 2,500 Wal-Mart stories in the U.S. and appear on Walmart.com and its digital venue Vudu.com. Some also appear in AMC Theatres and on channels Stars and Lifetime.
"Having guaranteed distribution is unprecedented," Davis said. "It gives [BFF] clout."
Distribution is important not just for the actors cast in those roles, Davis said, but for the audience members who see them. Research through the Geena Davis Institute focuses on the impact of media on children because it points to an unconscious bias.
"When children see movies and TV without women, without people of color in them, they get the message that they're not as valuable because they're not there," she said. "They're not well represented. I'm a big believer in 'If they see it, they can be it.'"
In putting more women behind cameras and on screen, festival founders hope to affect the diversity of roles as well.
"Right now two thirds of college students are women," said Drinkwater, who believes that's a result of seeing women in TV roles doing jobs not ordinarily thought of as careers that women choose. "These shows show them that they can do those jobs. It's needed to tell young kids that there are no limits."
NW News on 05/05/2016