1 EQUAL MEANS EQUAL THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENTARY FILM ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN AMERICA PRESS CONTACT: LIZ LOPEZ - [email protected] -(323)954-9644 2 INTERNATIONAL RAPE & WOMEN’S SEXUAL RIGHTS ASSAULT FEMALE FEMALE INCARCERATION POVERTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE THE LAW DISCRIMINATIONWAGE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION FOSTER CARE EQUAL & CHILD MEANS EQUAL SEXTRAFFICKING Graphic from EQUAL MEANS EQUAL highlighting the topics covered in the film. 3 SYNOPSIS EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is a no-holds-barred documentary analysis of discrimination against women in the United States today. The film takes an unflinching look at where American women find themselves and makes an irrefutable case for their full, legal equality. Through the film’s narrative, the audience sees how seemingly disparate issues weave together to have a profound impact on women’s lives. Themes the film addresses are: • The Gender Pay Gap • Pregnancy Discrimination and Maternity Rights • Domestic Violence • Foster Care • Child Sex Trafficking • Rape and Sexual Assault • Healthcare and Reproductive Rights • Juvenile Justice, Prison and Rates of Female Incarceration • International Women’s Rights • The Law From the perspective of a modern “everywoman,” Kamala Lopez asks questions about the present laws in place that claim to protect women. By following both real life stories and precedent setting legal cases, Lopez discovers the absurdity of the status quo and realizes that, given the reality of women’s lives in 2015, this system cannot be sustained. 4 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Are we all connected despite appearances? The further into this I go, the more convinced I am that there is no woman untouched in the matter of gender discrimination - regardless of her social status or any other distinctions we may designate. I had a hunch that there had to be some commonality lurking beneath the surface connecting the multiple seemingly divergent women’s issues that were harming us today. In EQUAL MEANS EQUAL I explore that theory. I discovered that despite multiple laws in place that purport to protect American women, the reality was far from equal in area after area. Could it all be a result of a lack of legal bedrock underpinning American women’s place in our society due to the failure of our Constitution to include women? EQUAL MEANS EQUAL makes the strong argument that full legal equality for women is a solution that has the potential to truly transform the United States and the world. I believe we need to compel our democracy to uphold the values the United States of America stands for: equality and justice for all. If we believe that all citizens are created equally then all citizens must be treated equally under the law. It really is that simple. Ratifying the ERA would put American women’s civil and human rights on a solid immovable foundation, impervious to the winds of political change. Ignorance of the matter has allowed the continuation of a blatant moral injustice against the majority of America’s citizens which cannot be allowed to continue - EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is an opening salvo to reignite the fight for our full civil rights once again. 5 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Filming began six years ago. There have been dozens of small shoots, mostly at conferences and events where Lopez has been speaking or in schools where the ERA Education Project has been implementing the ERA University Program. There have also been multiple significant produced shoots in the past three years. The first major shoot took place in 2012 when the filmmakers traveled to Washington D.C. for the 40th anniversary of the Equal Rights Amendment. Kamala Lopez filmed legislators, advocates and pillars of the feminist movement. Later in the year the team returned to D.C. for the second major shoot covering the grass- roots ERA rally, “We Are Woman,” where Lopez heard from dozens of American women about the challenges they face and explored with them how the passage of a Constitutional Equal Rights Amendment might address their struggles. The third shoot in Rhode Island and New York in November of 2013 covered the first ERA Conference in over thirty years at Roger Williams University Law School and captured more than 25 on-camera conversations with experts and activists with their fingers on the pulse of what’s happening with women both on the ground and in policy developments. Early December 2013, Lopez and the crew traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to meet legendary Equal Rights Amendment opponent Phyllis Schlafly, the first extensive filmed interview that Schlafly has granted in years. In the spring of 2014, Lopez and the crew filmed for over a week in Los Angeles, covering issues such as Foster Care and Child Sex Trafficking. The film crew travelled with the LAPD’s undercover VICE unit to the tracks in South L.A. where underage girls are bought and sold every day. Prison, juvenile justice and poverty were explored through the lens of the Women’s Center in Skid Row, L.A. County Probation officers, and Gang Specialists. Prison Rights activ- ists spoke of the gender bias in sentencing and we heard the stories of women serving life in prison for killing their abusers. Just weeks later, Gloria Steinem won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and agreed to be interviewed for the film. The crew flew back to New York and the result is a profound and tran- scendent take on gender discrimination from the ultimate source. Top of Page: Second Camera, Laura Prevost, Director, Kamala Lopez and Director of Photogrpahy, Jendra Jarnigan 6 THE PRODUCTION TEAM KAMALA LOPEZ - DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER Actress, filmmaker, activist and President of Heroica Films, Kamala Lopez, has launched the movement and film EQUAL MEANS EQUAL to educate Americans about the importance of equal rights under federal law for women. Born in New York City to an Indian mother and a Venezuelan father, Lopez has worked as an actor in over thirty feature films including Born in East L.A., Deep Cover, The Burning Season (winner of 2 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize), Clear and Present Danger, Lightning Jack, and I Heart Huckabees. She has starred in over sixty television shows includ- ing Medium, 24, Alias, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and 21 Jump Street (winner of the Imagen Award). She hosted the PBS series Wired Science. Lopez, a Yale University graduate in Philosophy and Theatre Studies, formed production com- pany Heroica Films in 1995 with the mission to write, direct and produce media for women, about women and utilizing women both in front and behind the camera. Her film, “A Single Woman,” about the life of first Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, won the 2009 Exceptional Merit in Media Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus. In 2013 her short Spanish-language film “Ese Beso” won the Jury Award at the Senorita Cinema Festival and the Audience Award at the Boyle Heights Latina Film Festival. In 2009 Lopez began the ERA Education Project, creating multi-media PSA’s, video FAQ’s, social media campaigns, educational videos & sites, piloting curriculum and travelling around the country speaking to groups as well as students in colleges and high schools. She has been the Keynote or Featured Speaker in venues as disparate as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery, The United Nations, The National Arts Club, at the Yale Women Global Conference as well as to “at-risk” girls and other children in L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles schools. Lopez’s work on behalf of women and girls has been recognized by Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors and the Women’s Commission who named her 2015 Woman of the Year (Arts/Media). In 2012 Women’s eNews selected her as one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Cen- tury and the National Women’s Political Caucus named her the 2011 Woman of Courage. EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is a labor of love that Lopez embarked on over six years ago when she first realized that women still did not have Constitutional protections in the United States and that most Americans were not aware of that. 7 LIZ LOPEZ - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER An educator, Liz Lopez was the Founder and Director of “Escuela Uno,” a private school in Caracas,Venezuela. Her belief in making truthful information available for the young and old so that they can make educated and forward thinking decisions concerning themselves and the world has been an integral part of her life. Born in Rangoon, Burma and educated in India, Kansas and New York City and having lived in South America she holds the view that our differences are few and our commonality when shown openly, holds us together globally for a great and better future. Executive Producer Liz Lopez on location in New York City with her daughter and Director Kamala Lopez. 8 Producer Joel Marshall Co-Writer & Producer Gini Sikes JOEL MARSHALL - PRODUCER Raised in the Seattle area, Joel began his career in the theater interning at Steppenwolf The- atre in Chicago, and working with Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts. Then in Los An- geles he produced and starred in the play Boy’s Life, at Theatre West and developed the hit play Resa Fanstastisk Mystisk with the renowned theatre troupe The Burglars of Hamm. More recently Joel has collaborated with his wife Kamala Lopez, writing, producing, editing, techni- cal supervising, acting and directing on various projects, including the movie A Single Wom- an, the indie film podcast FatFreeFilm, the successful WGA online media campaign Speech- less Without Writers, and the short films Coffee Clutch, Filet of 4, Ese Beso, Dark Knight Aurora and SLOB90X.