14-Year-Old Teaches 17 Magazine About Real Girls

Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:00 am

I used to tell my daughter that she could read fashion magazines as long as she understood that everything in them, the articles and the ads, was intended to make her feel bad about her looks and buy a lot of stuff she did not need. Now a 14-year-old girl has persuaded one of the most successful and influential magazines for teenagers to show girls as they really are, with all of the photos in the magazine showing “real girls and models who are healthy,” and promising to “celebrate every kind of beauty.” I especially like their commitment to putting pictures from their photo shoots on Tumblr so girls can see the edits and their promise not to make changes to the models’ faces or bodies.

Julia Bluhm started an online petition after girls in her ballet class were complaining that they were fat. With 25,000 signatures in just a few days, she made a compelling case and Seventeen invited Bluhm and her mother to visit them. Bluhm says she will now work on Teen Vogue. This is a wonderfully empowering development, not just because it will show girls more realistic models but because it shows girls they can make a difference on issues that concern them. Hurray for Julia Bluhm!

Happy Anniversary, “Star Wars!”

Posted on May 25, 2012 at 12:40 pm

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, my mom gave me a preview ticket for a movie and I went knowing nothing about it except that it was made by the director of “American Graffiti” and co-starred Alec Guiness. It was the original Star Wars, which celebrates its 35th anniversary today. I went back soon after, bringing my fiancee/now husband, and we sat through it twice. May the force be with Lucas and everyone who helped to create this world.

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Cannes: Where Are the Women?

Posted on May 20, 2012 at 8:00 am

Thanks to Thelma Adams for writing about the way that the prestigious Cannes Film Festival continues to overlook women.

year’s Cannes Film Festival has not a single female-directed film among the 23 in competition.

I love contenders like David Cronenberg, whose “Cosmopolis”— starring Robert Pattinson — has been welcomed into the competition, and who headed the Cannes jury in 1999. I was a champion of his cerebral period drama “A Dangerous Method,” which had a terrific star turn by Keira Knightley. But, really, not a single film by a woman? I’m just gobsmacked.

It is, however, a good year to be a North American male: In addition to Cronenberg, Lee Daniels (“The Paperboy”), Jeff Nichols (“Mud”), and Wes Anderson (“Moonrise Kingdom”) will premiere at what is considered the most prestigious film festival on the planet. The other 51 percent be damned.

Adams points out that other top festivals like Telluride and Tribeca have no trouble finding worthy films directed by women, including the latest from Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow and “Away From Her’s” Sarah Polley.

The Wrap reports that “Before the festival began, an open letter ran in the French newspaper Le Monde. ‘Men are fond of depth in women,’ read one line of the letter, ‘but only in their cleavage.'” More than 1000 people have signed a petition calling for Cannes to include more women filmmakers and many have asked that Cannes include more women — and not just actresses — as judges.

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Pixar’s “Brave” Gets a PG Rating

Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:12 am

Pixar usually hits the G-rating sweet spot but for this year’s highly anticipated “Brave,” the first Pixar film to feature a female lead, they have received a PG rating from the MPAA, for “some scary action and rude humor.” The “rude humor” is evident in a cute fake ad being used to promote the movie.

But for a better idea about the “scary action” you’d need to take a look at the Japan-only movie trailer.

It may be that Pixar heightened the action to make sure that boys would not be turned off by a girl-led story.

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Wait, a Theater Wants to Encourage Texting?

Posted on May 4, 2012 at 3:28 pm

A panel at industry gathering Cinemacon seemed to support the idea of allowing or even encouraging texting during a movie. David Lieberman reports on Deadline that some theater chains believe that today’s ticket buyers are so attached to their devices it does not make sense to expect them to sit through a movie without staying in touch to share their thoughts.

The only one to take a firm stand in opposition was

Tim League, CEO of Alamo Drafthouse — a small chain that makes a point of throwing out customers who talk or text during a film. “Over my dead body will I introduce texting into the movie theater,” he says. “I love the idea of playing around with a new concept. But that is the scourge of our industry. … It’s our job to understand that this is a sacred space and we have to teach manners.” He says it should be “magical” to come to the cinema. But Miles shot back that “one person’s opinion of magical isn’t the other’s.”

I find it rude and distracting when movie-goers take out their smart phones and iPads in the theater. But I could see a “Sing-along Sound of Music”-style special screenings of cult films like “The Room” and “Rocky Horror Show” that encourage texting and even show the running commentary across the bottom of the screen, something like a cross between “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and “Pop-up Videos.”

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