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LEAH MEYERHOFF: FILMMAKER PAVING FOR GENDER EQUALITY

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Still from Leah Meyerhoff’s “I Believe in Unicorns”

New York City-based filmmaker, Leah Meyerhoff,  has been utilizing her film career in order to promote gender equality. She founded “Film Fatales“, which is a network for women directors. Founded in Brooklyn in 2013, is has since gained international recognition. Along with running Film Fatales, she serves as a mentor for the Tribeca Film Fellows, where she works one-on-one with high schoolers to have their dreams come true.

Meyerhoff founded Film Fatales so women directors can network and collaborate on projects.  She explains how the process works, “A different member hosts the meeting each month in the living room of her house, so it’s like a rotating dinner party format. It’s every first Monday of every month, and there are two dozen meetings that happen simultaneously around the world, in London, Sydney, Los Angeles, San Francisco and here in New York—one’s for documentary filmmakers, one’s for fiction, two for shorts, and we just started a spinoff group for female cinematographers. We have over 100 members in New York alone, in addition to various other chapters around the world.”

Her debut feature film, I Believe in Unicorns, is currently screening at the IFC Center May 29- Jun 4. She says she created this film because, “when I was a teenage girl, I didn’t have enough films with young female protagonists that I could relate to. Rather than waiting around for Hollywood to finally start making those films, I became a filmmaker and made that film myself. So I’m personally most gratified when young girls, whether they’re in high school or college, come up to me and say they’ve connected to Unicorns on a deeply personal level, and that they they’re rarely ever able to say that.” Meyerhoff hopes that movies like I Believe in Unicorns  will influence gender dynamics in future films.

Watch the trailer below:

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