Geena Davis & the Female Film Revolution

Geena Davis, actress known for her roles in the films Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own & The Long Kiss Goodnight, and the head of the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media, is making yet another great contribution to film by partnering with Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods and Coke to host the Bentonville Film Festival.

"According to a news release from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the festival is designed to champion women and diversity in film and will take place from May 5 to 9 in Bentonville. It is also the first and only film competition in the world to offer guaranteed theatrical, television, digital and retail home entertainment distribution for its winners, the release states."

The film festival, which is in the position to become one of the most sought after and acclaimed by women filmmakers creating in male dominated culture, will be chaired by Davis and will board noteable actors and celebrities as Samuel L. Jackson, Randy Jackson, Eva Longoria, Julianne Moore, and Natalie Portman, according to the release.

With Davis's work to make women equals in media, it is nearly irrefutable to believe that Bentonville will be the greatest aim for neophyte and veteran female filmmakers who have met an inability to market their films on a merit as in comparison to men. This is not a race issue, it is a sexist one; male dominated markets have run the gauntlet to a point that female filmmakers, though believing they are equals to their counterparts, are started to hear the chants of inequality.

Women outnumber men 7 to 1 in the modern world but in film, it is men who have taken on the role of the dominant bellwether and the greatest award to the prestige of film, the Oscars, boards more older C
aucasian men than any other race. With Geena Davis now reemerging her altruism, it is possible that the shift in the power and awards may reach those who have the merit to earn them, those who have the power to move those with the film. If the film has lost anything, it has not only lost creativity or originality, it has lost its equality.