Hollywood loves to pat itself on the back for “progress”.
Watch Geena Davis blow that up.
Trailer for “This Changes Everything”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- From 1949 to 1979, women received just 0.5% of directing assignments at major studios. Half of one percent. Hollywood buried the numbers until this film forced them into the open.
- When six female directors tried to raise the issue decades ago, the Directors Guild of America kept them from speaking publicly.
- Maria Giese, the director who ignited the EEOC and ACLU investigations, says Hollywood is the single worst offender of Title VII employment discrimination laws in the entire U.S. economy.
- Geena Davis discovered through her institute that women characters in film plummet after age 40, no matter how many Oscars they’ve won.
Watch “This Changes Everything”
You can stream “This Changes Everything” on Roku, Pluto, and Fandango.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 95/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 100/100 (Users); 88/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Tom Donahue directs this doc. The film leans on the testimony of Maria Giese, who risked her career by going public, and icons like Meryl Streep, Taraji P. Henson, and Geena Davis. They give both lived experiences and statistical proof.
Release Date: June 9, 2019 (Tribeca Film Festival premiere); wide release later that year
My Review of “This Changes Everything”
The Setup
This 97-minute doc takes on Hollywood’s most entrenched power imbalance: gender. It opens with the cold math: half the audience are women, yet nearly all directors, showrunners, and decision-makers are men. The film blends firsthand testimony from stars with behind-the-scenes accounts of women who fought (and were often blacklisted) for simply asking for equal opportunity.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Geena Davis’s Institute on Gender in Media shows how female characters are sidelined or sexualized, and how child audiences internalize that imbalance early.
- Taraji P. Henson talks about the pay gap, explaining she was paid a fraction of her white male co-stars despite carrying films to success.
- Footage reveals how many “this changes everything” moments (like the success of “Wonder Woman” or “Bridesmaids”) get hailed as turning points but fail to shift long-term hiring or pay structures.
- The EEOC investigation into Hollywood hiring practices becomes the most significant legal action on gender discrimination in the entertainment industry in decades.
Cameos – Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Meryl Streep recalls being told she was “too old” for romantic leads in her 40s—while her male co-stars were still being paired with women half their age.
- Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman appear in quick interviews, both blunt about how often they’ve been the only woman on a set dominated by male department heads.
- Archival footage shows a young Steven Spielberg praising his male peers while overlooking equally talented women of the same era.
Wrap Up:
This is a Hollywood workplace story that echoes in every industry. If you care about equity, watch this one and brace yourself for the receipts.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc