Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features“You have to put it in the script. If you put in the script – it will happen.”This is Geena Davis’ sage advice to filmmakers when crafting stories aiming to incorporate inclusive storylines and characters.“Nobody is going to second guess if it says the scene takes place at, say, ‘a police station which is 40% women,’ or if there’s a scene where ‘a crowd gathers, which is half female,’” continues the Oscar-winning actor and founder of the eponymous Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.“Specify what it is.
You have to write in the script.”That advice came to fruition in “The Seven Faces of Jane,” a surrealistic anthology film that held its world premiere at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival’s eighth edition last night in the quaint Arkansas city, home to Walmart’s global headquarters.
The fest, founded and chaired by Davis, runs in-person through June 26 and in a virtual format until July 3. Highlights of this year’s fest include Geena and Friends, an event where Davis and a group of female actors, including Brianne Howey (“Ginny & Georgia”) and Chelsea Javier (“Smile or Hug”), reimagine all-male dialogue of a script through a female lens and a 10th anniversary screening of “The Hunger Games.” The fest will also honor producer Effie Brown (“Dear White People,” “Passing”) with its Rising to the Challenge award.
Fin Argus, who stars as an aspiring drag performer on Peacock’s reboot of “Queer as Folk,” will receive the BFF Rising star Award.
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