Submitted by: CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival
CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival will present a special outdoor screening of the film Megan Leavey at Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro’s The Roost on September 9 beginning at 8:00 p.m. The event is intended to help raise both funds and awareness for the CASCADIA film festival as well as showcase a sensitive, uplifting film made by a woman about an outstanding woman.
Admission is just $10. As a thank you for their service, active duty military and veterans with valid military I.D. will receive free admission.
The event is generously sponsored by Barbara Vz Howard, whose partner was a U.S. Marine pilot in the Vietnam War. They are supporters of Keeping K-9s in Kevlar. K-9 Officer Deputy Jason Nyhus and K-9 Hyde of Whatcom County Sheriff’s Department will be on-hand after the film for a short presentation and to answer audience questions about this harrowing work. Keeping K-9s in Kevlar is a Bellingham-based nonprofit that purchases Kevlar vests for law enforcement dogs in need. Each vest that is donated honors a fallen officer.
In addition, Boundary Bay Brewery is generously donating The Roost and projection equipment for the evening’s event.
Megan Leavey
Megan Leavey is based on the true story of Marine Corporal Megan Leavey whose unique discipline and bond with her military combat dog, an aggressive German shepherd named Rex, saved many lives during their deployment in Iraq. Over the course of their service, Megan and Rex completed more than 100 missions until an IED explosion injured them, putting their fate in jeopardy. For their dedication and heroism, they received the Purple Heart.
The film was directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish) from a screenplay by Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo and Tim Lovestedt and stars Kate Mara, Edie Falco, Ramón Rodríguez, Bradley Whitford and Common.
Megan Leavey is a wonderful, warm film about their special relationship and loyalty as well as the story of a woman in an unconventional role. It demonstrates the training that both undergo prior to being sent into combat zones. In addition, the crew on the film was largely made up of women.
More about CASCADIA
CASCADIA’s mission is three-pronged:
- To promote Bellingham, Whatcom County and the Pacific Northwest as a destination for filmmakers and film enthusiasts
- To present an annual film festival showcasing exceptional films by women directors
- To provide educational opportunities relating to the viewing, making and distribution of films.
CASCADIA is an annual film festival, one of only two film festivals in the United States dedicated to exclusively showcasing the work of women directors. The festival debuted in April 2017, presenting 24 exceptional films directed by women at Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, WA.
A 2017 study conducted by the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Communications and Journalism School, Inclusion in the Director’s Chair? evaluated 1,000 top grossing films from 2007 to 2016. It showed that out of 1,114 directors, only 4 percent were female and that, “There was no meaningful change in the prevalence of female directors across the top films from 2007 to 2016.”
The program’s 2016 report showed that only 30 percent of speaking characters in top-grossing films were women. In 2014, women had leading roles in only 20 percent of the top 100 films. Only 2 percent of those films featured non-white women in leading roles.
“At a time when women are succeeding in many traditionally-male roles in business, academia, government, even construction and heavy industry, women’s voices are seldom heard in the films that we know shape our perceptions of the world. CASCADIA came together to help remedy this imbalance, to bring women’s perspectives and concerns into the public arena,” says CASCADIA Executive Director Cheryl Crooks. “This fundraiser will support our continuing mission.”
More information may be found on the CASCADIA website www.cascadiafilmfest.org.
