Some people just deserve to be celebrated.
In case you haven’t heard, About-Face is beyond thrilled to honor the awesome Jennifer Siebel Newsom this Thursday, November 4.
Though you may know her as the First Lady of San Francisco, Jennifer also fills plenty of other important roles. Besides working as an actress, spokesperson, and mother, the San Francisco native is also a filmmaker, and recently wrote and directed Miss Representation, a documentary that’s so in line with what we do at About-Face, we had to celebrate it.
Miss Representation explores the ways the media projects limited and damaging images of women (Don’t believe it? Um, have you seen our Gallery of Offenders?). Jennifer brought together a number female powerhouses to talk about the ways the media is teaching young girls that their value lies in beauty, youth, and sexuality.
Besides our very own honorary event host and kick-ass comedian Margaret Cho, Jennifer interviewed women like Condoleezza Rice, Gloria Steinem, Katie Couric, Jeane Kilbourne, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, and many more.
Think that sounds incredible? Wait for it — it gets better. Jennifer is also donating the film’s proceeds to national women’s leadership programs led by Girls for A Change, Girls Inc., The International Museum of Women, Step Up Women’s Network, The Women’s Media Center, and The White House Project. The goal is to create an educational curriculum for middle and high school students and directed action to demand media responsibility.
So come to our About-Face cocktail reception and silent auction event this Thursday, November 4, from 6-9pm at La Boutique in San Francisco. Click here to purchase tickets, and don’t miss your chance to see for yourself why Jennifer’s inspired us.
Watch the Miss Representation trailer below:
— Michelle Konstantinovsky is a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and an avid admirer of shiny objects and preteen entertainment. It would be nice if you visited her website: www.michellekmedia.com. Also, she may learn to use Twitter more effectively if you follow her @michelley415.