I've been a social justice advocate all my life, becoming an activist for women and human rights even in high school, and found ways to weave it in to my later for-profit career. The first film I got involved in was Christy Turlington's "No Woman, No Cry" , which was about the impact of maternal health around the world. It brought this important issue to light, and even though I wasn't in a credit position, I helped her find ways to screen it.
Julie SmolyanskyI do think film can change culture, in a way that reading a story in the New York Times does not.
Julie SmolyanskyI've been a social justice advocate all my life, becoming an activist for women and human rights even in high school, and found ways to weave it in to my later for-profit career. The first film I got involved in was Christy Turlington's "No Woman, No Cry" , which was about the impact of maternal health around the world. It brought this important issue to light, and even though I wasn't in a credit position, I helped her find ways to screen it.
Julie SmolyanskyWhat is exciting today is that with technology filmmaking has been democratized, and so many more people have access to making a film.
Julie SmolyanskyIn the documentary space, the biggest and most obvious difference is that in those films you're not in it for a financial gain. It's a piece of collaboration and artistic expression, that pushes change and self expression, in the sense that everyone has a story.
Julie SmolyanskyDuring the mourning period after my father passed, his friends and colleagues were saying there was no way the business would survive. There was no way that a 27-year-old woman could run a company. I was so pissed that this was a conversation during a mourning period, and that a woman who was educated and working at a high level at the company wasn't considered for leadership. This was my father's life work, something I was completely connected to, and I knew I could take the reins.
Julie Smolyansky