Led by Rebekah Cheyne, senior media producer for the school, a team of alumni and students, including Moayyednia, worked together to create “Dear Women,” a short film encouraging women to tell their stories as filmmakers. 

“We prepare filmmakers to be industry leaders, so our students are already at work shattering the ‘celluloid ceiling’ as a matter of innovating how to make and tell stories for a global community,” said Tiffany Ana López, director of the School of Film, Dance and Theatre. “The more diverse and equitable the work, the greater its market and impact. Our film students show us what they want and need to succeed in their careers, inspiring the advancement of initiatives like our Dear Women campaign.”

The video represents ongoing efforts in the school. It was released publicly over Oscar weekend when it screened in L.A. at ASU Film Spark’s Hollywood Sun Devil mixer and pre-Oscar party.

“Far from being a call for change, this video is a reflection of the change that has been going on for a few years,” said Jason Davids Scott, assistant director of film in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre. “We’ve started our own social media campaign, ‘Dear Women in Film,’ to highlight the contributions of women in the entertainment industry, past, present and future, connecting our current students to this essential legacy.”

For the last two semesters, equal numbers of male and female students have successfully applied to the school’s upper division film and media production program, and since 2014, women represent the fastest growing population of film students.

As part of an initiative called SAFE Set, Scott is also working to develop learning materials and a digital interface to train students in best practices on a film set to avoid abuse, discrimination and harassment.

Last year the school established the MarVista Strides to Inclusivity Award to recognize female students who find unique ways of breaking gender barriers inherent in the industry and fulfill their artistic visions without restriction in the hopes of a better tomorrow, inclusive to all perspectives and opportunities within the film and media industry. The school partnered with MarVista Entertainment to award $500 to the winner.

ASU Film Spark in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre, focused the 2018-19 year on women in film. 

During the fall semester, Film Spark’s Welcome to Hollywood class gave students the chance to connect via video conference with Hollywood mega-producer Nina Jacobson (“The Hunger Games,” “Crazy Rich Asians”), YouTube TV & Originals Head of Global Marketing Angela Courtin, co-chair of the Director’s Guild of America Women’s Steering Committee Bethany Rooney (“Scandal,” “The Blacklist”) and several other prominent industry professionals. In the spring, Film Spark brought five prominent female film and television professionals to ASU’s Tempe campus to work with students for its Industry Guest Seminars series. Guests included Hollywood producer Susan Cartsonis (“Deidra and Laney Rob a Train,” “What Women Want”), casting directors Deborah Aquila and Tricia Wood (“Wonder,” “La La Land”), writer/director Amy Adrion and cinematographer Soraya Sélène. The visits included screenings of the guests’ work, including Adrion’s Sundance Film Festival documentary “Half the Picture,” a documentary that investigates hiring practices that discriminate against women in Hollywood and features interviews with a number of successful women directors about their career paths, struggles, inspirations and hopes for the future. 

“In 2011, we launched ALL for ONE, a professional group of female and male Hollywood professionals, all dedicated to advancing the cause of gender equity,” said Professor Adam Collis, director of Film Spark. “Film Spark has given us the chance to build on this commitment, creating a huge number of opportunities for female filmmakers and executives to visit our students, including the women in cinema seminars this year. It is also gratifying to see our male students embrace this issue as a problem for both women and men alike. Gender inequality hurts all of us, and it will take all of us working together to make things right.”

The School of Film, Dance and Theatre values the creativity, personal experience, vision and voice each student brings to the program, and pushing for gender equity is just one of the ways the school supports the Herberger Institute’s mission of projecting all voices.

“We’re all filmmakers,” said Macy Kimpland, who graduated from the school in 2018 and worked on the “Dear Women” video. “But we’re also all different. Every single one of us is different. Every single one of us has our own life experiences and our own stories. And that’s what makes us storytellers.”