EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights to Miss Representation: Rise Up, director Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s examination of the “backlash against women in the age of AI, social media, and rising misogyny.”
The company plans to premiere the film at IFC Center in New York City on October 22, before a rollout to theaters across North America. That will qualify the documentary for the Oscar race. Miss Representation: Rise Up, the follow-up to Newsom’s 2011 film Miss Representation, premiered in June at Tribeca Festival in New York.
The new film “dives deep into the alarming mental health crisis affecting women’s agency and power,” notes a release. “With the proliferation of AI deepfakes and the online ‘manosphere,’ this new era of tech-facilitated violence is exacerbating sexism and misogyny towards women and girls in an attempt to objectify, control, and silence them.
“Highlighting a new generation of inspiring young women who are actively pushing back, Miss Representation: Rise Up interweaves women’s personal journeys with insights from influential voices across politics, media, technology, advocacy, and academia, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Amy Klobuchar, Safiya Noble, Frances Haugen, Reshma Saujani, Jameela Jamil, Gretchen Carlson, and Jim Steyer, to reimagine a future that finally uplifts women and girls.”
We have your exclusive look at the film in the trailer below.
“Jennifer Siebel Newsom has spent over a decade holding up a mirror to how our culture treats women,” said Karol Martesko-Fenster, CEO of AB2 Media Group and Abramorama, and Damon G. Smith, SVP of Creative Strategy and Business Growth. “This timely and incisive film documents a troubling crisis that no one – women, parents, educators, policy makers – can afford to ignore, and introduces us to the young women meeting it head-on. We’re proud to bring this vital, galvanizing work to theaters across North America.”
The acquisition comes following news of a $17.1 billion dollar settlement of a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general that accused Meta of designing its Facebook and Instagram platforms to addict young people and damage their mental health. Newsom’s film speaks directly to harm inflicted on young women who are routinely denigrated on social media and who face constant scrutiny of their appearance and comportment through online platforms.
“We’re dealing with an aggressive predator of misogyny that’s coming at young women online,” actress/activist Jameela Jamil says in the trailer. Another expert reports, “We are putting young women through the most severe mental health crisis that the country has ever experienced.”
Newsom, who is California’s First Partner, executive produced the Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated The Invisible War (2012), and the Emmy Award-winning documentaries The Hunting Ground (2015) and On the Record (2020). After releasing Miss Representation in 2011, she launched The Representation Project, “a nonprofit organization that uses film, media, and education as catalysts for cultural transformation.”
“When I made my first documentary Miss Representation 15 years ago, I wanted my daughter and girls in her generation to use their voices and stand in their power as rightful leaders,” Newsom said in a statement. “Unfortunately, amidst progress for women and girls came extreme backlash. Technology is the newest and most powerful cultural communicator of our time – and it is being weaponized at an unprecedented scale to silence women and girls.”
Newsom continued, “I hope Miss Representation: Rise Up continues to inspire women and girls to use their voice and stand in their power, just as I hope the film encourages boys and men to value women and girls and ensure we all have seats at decision-making tables. Abramorama understands the urgency of getting this story in front of as many people as possible. We are honored to partner with them.”
Abramorama and The Representation Project present Miss Representation: Rise Up. Executive producers: Melinda French Gates & Pivotal, Melony & Adam Lewis, Aileen Getty Foundation, Susie Thompkins Buell, Harnisch Foundation, Minderoo Pictures, Jackie Zehner, Maureen Pelton & Charlie Hartwell, Patricia Arquette, Hadley Mullin, Emily Liu Foy, Brenda Robinson, and Barbara Bridges. Original music by Laura Karpman, with cinematography by Mario Furloni. Jessica Congdon and Jennifer Steinman Sternin edited the film. Miss Representation: Rise Up is written and produced by Camille Servan-Schreiber, Gretchen Miller, and Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Watch the trailer for Miss Representation: Rise Up here:
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