Funding Women Artists: 100,000 Signatures Needed to Support Equitable Funding for Women Artists by Feb 6th

Posted on January 20, 2015 by blackchickmedia

Funding Women Artists

100,000 Signatures Needed to Support Equitable Funding for Women Artists by Feb 6th

Inspiring Change for Women in the Arts

During President Obama’s administration, the fight for equality has had a renewed energy and significance. The national call for “equal pay for equal work for women” has been heard by the arts community, as well. Women artists have a stake in the call to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, as they often take on day jobs in order to support their families and themselves as artists. Women have the civil and human right to participate equally in opportunities for creative expression in programs supported by taxpayer funds.

The “Cromnibus” bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives, approved $146 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities each; $30 million for the Office of Museum Services; and $25 million for the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education program. What would equitable distribution of these funds mean for women artists nationally? Everything.

To this end, a petition calling for legislation guaranteeing women equal access and opportunity for employment in government funded arts organizations has been launched. At least 100,000 signatures are needed by February 6, 2015 in order to receive an official response from the White House.

People can view, sign and share the petition here:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/enact-legislation-guaranteeing-women-equal-access-opportunity-employment-government-funded-arts/k78Rz059

Equitable Distribution of Funds

The petition states: “We the People petition the Obama administration to enact legislation whereby any nonprofit arts organization or institution that is receiving city, state or federal funding should be mandated to allocate an equitable portion of that funding to women artists across the board, thereby ensuring that women receive grants and/or employment opportunities that are still being denied them.

“For example, studies show that in the American Theatre women receive less than 20% of production opportunities nationwide. With this new legislation, playwrights, directors, designers, dramaturgs, etc. would have a fair shot at working and/or creating in their chosen field. Commercial theatre producers will continue to produce and/or employ whomever they choose—man or woman. But when government monies are involved, the petition asks for a mandate for parity in the disbursement of those dollars for all women in the literary, performing and visual arts.”

President Obama said in his 2014 State of the Union address, “When women succeed, America succeeds.” Ensure that women artists can succeed by signing this petition which can change their lives as well as the landscape of work created by women artists for the enjoyment and betterment of arts and culture in communities, cities, and states across America.

Opportunities to sign the petition are open until Feb. 6, 2015.

Again, view, sign and share this petition today here:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/enact-legislation-guaranteeing-women-equal-access-opportunity-employment-government-funded-arts/k78Rz059

Shortened link for posting:

http://1.usa.gov/1Ao26IW

Some hashtags:

#LeanIn

#ChangeTheRatio

#Ask4More

#EqualVoice

#parityraid

#paritypetition

#theatrewomen

#womeninfilm

#glasscurtain

#glassceiling

#womencallingtheshots

#halfthesky

#heforshe

More Info? See Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/765365980178622/

13th Annual Women of African Descent Film Festival!

Posted on January 9, 2014 by blackchickmedia

The 13th Annual Women of African Descent Film Festival brought to you by the Brooklyn Chapter of the Links, now opens its call for entries. If you would like to see an example of the lineup from the previous festival, click here. You may either contact us, or wadff2014@gmail.com, with questions regarding the festival.

MISSION & OBJECTIVE To showcase films which are centered around the theme of Linkages: Women, Their Families, Neighborhoods, and the Global Community, and to support the artistic development of Women filmmakers of African Descent by providing a supportive exhibition platform, offering stipends to participants, and seeking industry opportunities that will help to expose the filmmakers’ works and further their careers.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL The Women of African Descent Film Festival (WADFF) is celebrating its 13^th Anniversary in 2014. In 2002, to mark the milestone of its 50^th anniversary, and to continue its legacy of showcasing the talent and accomplishments of artists of African descent, the Brooklyn Chapter began sponsoring the WADFF. This tradition has continued annually since then, and takes place on the first Saturday in May each year.

Formed in 1952, The Brooklyn Chapter of The Links is dedicated to the support of educational, civic and cultural activities in Brooklyn. It is a chapter of The Links, Inc. an international, not-for-profit corporation, whose membership consists of 12,000 professional women of color in 276 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The Brooklyn Chapter works under the guidelines of its national organization in providing services to its Brooklyn Community in five mission areas: The Arts, Services to Youth, National Trends and Services, International Trends, and Health and Wellness. A focus of the Chapter’s arts programming is to empower women and youth by lending support and encouragement to emerging artists – with a particular focus on filmmakers for the past 13 years.

The foundation for all of the chapter’s programs and services is rooted in the African American tradition of giving and volunteerism. Members share a deep sense of communal responsibility, and for the past 50 plus years have been committed to actively initiating and supporting educational, cultural, and civic programs, that positively impact the lives of people of African descent residing in Brooklyn.

GENERAL RULES & SUBMISSION GUIDELINES All films must be produced, written or directed by a female filmmaker of African descent, and must have been completed on or after June 1, 2010. Submission deadline is Wednesday, April 2^nd. Jurors Choice Awards and stipends will be presented to the participating filmmakers.

Filmmakers are encouraged to submit both a DVD screener as well as a digital screener*. Please note: there is no submission fee, and films will not be returned to you unless you include a self-addressed padded envelope. With your playable DVD submission, please include a synopses, crew list, press kit and any stills you would like to appear in the program and/or advertisements.

Please send all films to:

The Brooklyn Chapter of The Links Inc.
P.O. Box 50013
Brooklyn, NY 11205-0013
Attn: WADFF

THE EVENT The festival will take place Saturday, May 3, 2014 at LIU Brooklyn Campus (corner of Flatbush and Dekalb Avenues), in the Media Arts Department Spike Lee Screening Room 10am-6pm.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

*If you have an online version of your film on a site such as Vimeo or YouTube, please submit that link to wadff2014@gmail.com.

Become an iGiftbag sponsor with The Hollywood Black Film Festival!

Posted on September 27, 2013 by blackchickmedia

The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) is proud to offer an innovative marketing vehicle designed to enhance your level of engagement with our loyal attendees and supporters, and provide high quality traffic for your business.

The HBFF 2013 iGiftBag™ is an interactive, “virtual goodie bag” provided electronically to each attendee, as well as our extensive email list and social media followers. The iGiftBag features rich-media digital gifts, offers, coupons, games, and more from local and national sponsors.

Dubbed “The Black Sundance,” the HBFF is an annual 5-day celebration of Black Cinema drawing together established filmmakers, popular film and TV stars, writers, directors, industry executives, emerging artists, and diverse audiences from Hollywood and around the world. The festival began in 1998 (13th year!), and this year’s events will be held at the prestigious W Hollywood Hotel.

iGiftBag is the leader in virtual gift bags and has been produced for major events and partners for over 5 years. Clients include such well-known companies as Disney, Direct TV, La Quinta Hotels and many more. Now they are making their proven record of success available to YOUR business with the Hollywood Black Film Festival iGiftBag.
Follow this link to view a demo (The actual HBFF iGiftBag will go live at the end of this month):

http://sanfrancisco.visitors.igiftbag.com/

What you get with the Hollywood Black Film Festival iGiftBag:

Multi-channel distribution strategy:
–Digital access: Mobile, Email (10,000+) & Festival Website ( High traffic site: over 100,000 site visits and 250,000 page views to date.)
— Festival Guide, Signage, 5,000+ Handouts for all event attendees
— Social Media: Facebook-7,200+ Twitter-2,400+
–Bonus distribution –Black Tie Gala Event 750+
–Major Media Coverage, PR, TV, Radio, Print
–Distribution: Before, During and After event (30 days)
–A Sponsor Dashboard that provides real-time access to analytics, showing # times users open gift bag, click-rate on your gift, number of times your gift was shared, emailed, printed and other engagement metrics.

To purchase a package you can visit our sponsorship site at http://sponsor.igiftbag.com/hollywoodblackfilmfestival2013/index.aspx

Trying to generate an audience for your film screening, premiere or event? Here’s a few tips:

Posted on September 26, 2013 by blackchickmedia

1. Got email? USE IT! Yes, social media is the marketing hotness, but email should NOT be overlooked. Use these free image editors like PicMonkey to create a nice INVITE.

If you’ve got a Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Mad Mimi, etc. use their templates to create and send invites. If you don’t have an email marketing service, GET ONE! Most of them have a FREE version for a few hundred emails.

Put in the headline YOU’RE INVITED or an eye catching phrase to boost open rates!

MAKE SURE THE EMAIL IS SHAREABLE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA so recipients can easily share it with friends and associates on social profiles.

AND TELL THEM TO SHARE IT, FORWARD IT in the body of the email. Put a call to action to work!

2. ALIGN your film with organizations that may be interested.

Some of our official selection deal with young people and, young people issues. There’s potentially an audience with local youth groups and organizations via social media.

If your film has international flavor, use GOOGLE, Facebook, Twitter searches to find groups, businesses, and organizations that are owned or managed by those from that location and culture. Introduce yourself FIRST, then share info about your film, and invite them to attend.

LA is full of little subsets of culture…Little Ethiopia community on Fairfax, The Carib Press, The Nigerian Student Association at UCLA just to name a few. So start Googling!

3. Has your film be screened before? Got photos and videos of the screening or behind the scenes? Create some shareable content to add to your invites, tweets, etc.

If none, directors and/or producers, do a 5 min or less video talking about your film. Why people should see it, why was making it important to you.

4. Treat your screening like an event, create a hashtag! Use it in your invites, your tweets, and Facebook updates. Tweets, Facebook updates, and even Google+ updates are now embeddable. So use the positive ones on your blog, website, and social media releases.

(Via The Hollywood Black Film Festival)