Look To The Stars News: Amy Sewell

Honeys We Love: Eric DeArmon

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:30:00 -0000

For this week’s Honeys We Love interview, Look To The Stars caught up with Eric DeArmon. Frontman for The Truthseekers – an 8-piece, New York-based “funk-n-soul machine” – Eric recently contributed a refreshingly original song, “Brighter Day”, to Amy Sewell and Susan Toffler’s documentary “What’s Your Point, Honey”.

What’s Your Point, Honey brings attention to the gender inequalities in political leadership. They seek to change that by introducing seven young women who have what it takes to seek and win the Presidency. The seven were chosen by an initiative called Project 24 which, along with the support of The White House Project and CosmoGirl!, aims to have a female President by the year 2024.

What impressed you most about the young women profiled in the documentary?

What impressed me most were the little girls. I felt like they were so pure and so real and so honest, and I really loved that. As far as the older girls, I think that what impressed me the most was the experience. You know, the opportunity to have this experience just as individuals, not as women going for the Presidency, but just that they would have that much energy, drive and desire for these things. I think that we spend a lot of time dividing each other up, whether it’s between political parties, or agenda, or sports teams, or whatever. My point about being divided is that our society tends to focus more on the differences than the similarities. These women – they are leaders, and to my knowledge most people are not. Most people are waiting for someone to tell them what to do. They were leaders moving in the direction that not everyone is comfortable in choosing. I think that is inspiring.

What do you think we can do to encourage younger girls to choose more leadership roles?

I think focusing on equality is the thing. One of my co-workers said the other day that there are more women than there are men in the world, and that it was odd that women are still considered a minority. My general philosophy in life is to do what makes you most happy, but take your own path and invent a new way of being. I feel like a lot of times we all fall prey – and maybe women more – to this trap of women getting into a man’s world. The focus shouldn’t be so much about trying to match up to men as it should be just creating your own path. I would encourage women to do what they do best, and embrace that.

That is good advice for everybody, not just women.

Exactly.

Who do you feel is a great role model for young women?

Helen Keller comes into my mind, just as far as a revolutionary and somebody who certainly made her own way. I am thinking of spiritual women, too. There is this woman, Shakiti Gwain, who does creative visualization, which I think is cool. It’s funny, because I definitely have a lot of women in my life, and I always seem to be involved creatively with them. I think men – mostly because of how they are represented in society and stuff – are the protectors or the conquerors. What is great about women is how open they are and how giving they are – how much they have to offer. I just find in working with men that their ego gets involved a lot. Whereas women [are] more often open and willing to get their hands dirty, and are extremely helpful and giving.

As far as politics – I wasn’t really pulling for Hillary. I guess I was more in the Obama camp. I am all about doing something in a different way. That is the whole thing with my band, The Truthseekers – it’s like, this is my sound, my voice, our music. Individuality is important. When I think about equality and I think about women, I think of the same thing. I have a seven-year-old son, and often we are in the playground. It is great because you have these little boys and little girls that haven’t been too tainted by the world, and it is always interesting to me that the little boys tend to gravitate towards the things that the little boys gravitate towards, and the little girls gravitate towards the things that little girls gravitate towards. So, there is always the question of nature and nurture, too, and how that plays a part. I think that I would say to women or to everyone, is be unique. Don’t follow the crowd.

Song clip: Brighter Day.

Honeys We Love: John Kimbrough

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:30:00 -0000

Written by Linda Burton

Look to the Stars is proud to present a weekly column entitled Honeys We Love, inspired by co-directors Amy Sewell and Susan Toffler’s recent documentary entitled What’s Your Point, Honey?.

The aim of Honeys We Love is to profile men who support gender equality issues, and we are happy to say that there are quite a few male celebrities out there promoting gender equality. We have put together a list of some of the names we think are worth mentioning, and each week we will take a closer look at one of our Honeys. Please let us know your favorite male celebs that should be included on the Honeys list, as we are sure we are just scratching the surface.

Our first interview profiles Emmy Award-winning musician John Kimbrough, a great example of a Honey We Love.

How did you first get involved with “What’s Your Point, Honey?”

A friend of mine who is a music supervisor here in Los Angeles knew Maxine – who was the music supervisor on this film – and recommended me for the job, so that is how I got in touch with those guys.

What did you get out of the whole experience of working with them?

Well, it was just great. It was a lot of fun, it was really easy. Susan and Amy are just great to work with, and all in all it was just a really fun, entertaining, informative kind of work experience.

Your song “1971” (clip below) that’s featured in “What’s Your Point, Honey?” is about the year the experts thought the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) would pass. It was first proposed in 1923 and it is still not part of the U.S. Constitution. Why do you think that hasn’t passed, and how do you think we can get more men to join the women and men already saying enough is enough, and try to make it happen?

Well, I think it is sort of inevitable. I don’t really know why it hasn’t passed. I don’t understand. But I think because for whatever reason it wasn’t the topic on everyone’s list for a number of years, particularly in the 80’s and 90’s. It just sort of fell off the agenda, and I think that it is very hard to get anything done in Washington, and if it is not front and center, people are going to forget about it. Why people are forgetting about something that involves more than half the population, I don’t understand. I think it eventually will, I just think that people just got sort of complacent.

Song clip: 1971.

Which women in your life have been a positive influence?

Oh, where do I begin? I think my Mom obviously would be the first and most important. But then just all my friends. One of two of my best friends in the world is a woman. Actually, come to think of it, if I had to pick five of my best friends, three or four of them would be women. So I think they are probably the biggest influence on me. And I am a child of the 70’s, what can I say?

Is there anything else you would like to add about being classified as a “Honey We Love?”

I think I pretty much have said it all. I think Amy and Susan are just doing the right thing, and they are fighting the good fight. They are trying to move the agenda.

It is great that there are guys like you that are helping move everything along. Thank you for taking the time to talk to Look to the Stars.

Look To The Stars Asks Amy Sewell

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:38:00 -0000

Written by Delinda Lombardo

Amy Sewell is the creator/writer/producer of Paramount’s 2005 crowd-pleasing documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom_. Her directorial debut, "_What’s Your Point, Honey?":http://www.whatsyourpointhoney.com/front, puts a new face on political leadership by introducing seven possible female contenders coming down the pipeline, while revealing inequalities that still exist today. What’s Your Point, Honey? is now showing in theaters across the US in special ‘one-night only exclusive’ events.

Tell us a little bit about What’s Your Point, Honey?

One big premise of the movie is that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. The idea started when my daughter told me I couldn’t ride a motorcycle because she’s never seen a woman on a motorcycle. And I thought what else is out there that they’re not seeing, that they would never even think possible because its just isn’t in front of them. The movie itself is really like a picture in the moment in time, it’s a mirror on society – about the next generation of women, where we are and where we’re going. It’ll make you laugh, kinda make you cry, it’s not hard hitting, it’s very much like ‘Mad Hot Ballroom’. If you want to get more out of it, it definitely runs deep, you can find all the metaphors that run throughout or you can just go along and look at the portraits of the seven possible future presidential candidates. So it’s light, I always say my style of film making is ‘doc-light.’

What’s idea behind ‘exclusive’ one-night-only screenings?

It’s being released in theaters in these one-night-only exclusive events, where you can also purchase a copy of the DVD, because there’s no reason for us to get involved with box office numbers and compete with ‘Indiana Jones’ or ‘Iron Man.’ We care about reach, and the best reach is to have people watch the DVD and start the conversation in their community.

Six years ago, with the support of the The White House Project, “Cosmo Girl!” launched “Project 2024” to get more young women involved in politics. How has this helped the cause?

When we had the seven young woman through the ‘White House Project’ and ‘Cosmo Girl’ they became more tangible, more achievable role models. Basically on our website we list what their strengths are, and I always think if we put all of them together we’d have an ideal president. But our message is, it’s not about one, each of them bring something to the table – the day we see just as many women on the debate podium is the day we get beyond gender to agenda.

At the recent ‘Women in Entertainment Production Panel’, you mentioned that after the attacks on 9/11, you started covering the kids angle – what third graders would do if they could rebuild the buildings. What, if anything, did you learn from these kids?

Basically, kids just think honestly. One kid wanted to rebuild the buildings out of rubber so the planes would bounce off it next time, and another kid said he wanted to rebuild it with holes in it so the planes could fly through. And at that moment, I realized it’s the best state to be in – a kind of kids state – because they rarely think about obstacles or barriers. They don’t have any filters. It was probably more of an influence than anything on making me think well – we really are prisoners to our own definitions or societies definitions. It’s exhausting to have those things around really, why can’t we just ignore them?

How do you feel about the TV/Media fueling inequalities? For example, ‘Americas Next Top Model’- are we creating the next generation of Paris Hilton’s, or are we empowering young woman?

I think we have to counter that and fight it. So by me putting seven awesome young women up on the big screen and saying these are role models, and not letting my kids read magazines where they make Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears role models, I hope I’m doing my part. But what I think we have to do is celebrate those who are good role models. I’m trying to emphasis the positive people who make positive choices.

Who would you most like young women to look up to or be inspired by?

Gosh, there are so many. I think there are ton of women athletes out there. I think you have to go to some of the different levels – go to the smaller games, not the ‘star’ games. I know they are out there, and I think we always have to be on the lookout to find them. My family and I go to a ton of college games or high school games and we look for the real life heroes. I think the more and more we get our kids into contributing to our society in a healthy way – whatever that means – then they won’t really care about the Britney’s. We [her family] love Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman. Hanna Montana said she made a mistake and I still think she’s an OK role model, but she gave us an opportunity to talk about it. We love Raven. We love America Ferrera. Any of the younger kids have to be smart enough not to be persuaded to do crazy things by their managers. We also love Kate Hudson, especially when she and her mother speak out about women’s issues.

You mentioned female athletes? Where do sports fit into the equality issue?

The next generation – which we show in the film – includes sports and fathers. Sports teach us how to compete, fall, get up, not cry, and learn to not only lose – which is important – but win really well and triumphantly with no apologies. Fathers – while they may not care if their wives, mothers or sisters are being treated equally – it’s hell or come high water if their daughters are treated differently, and so regardless of the fathers actual involvement, their daughters will pick up that mentality and she’ll bring it into the business world, into the sports world, into the military and into politics.

Tell us a bit about your new book, “She’s Out There! The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates”?

It’s going to be released April 9. It’s about 35 women under the age of 35 who aspire to lead and possibly run for President. They write their own essays and I took a photographer around the country with me and we took pictures of these women doing what they do everyday. So the premise of the book is: you don’t know if she’s sitting next to you, you don’t know if it’s your neighbor down the block – the fact is that there are going to be a lot more women out there who want to run for office, it’s the beginning of the next generation of candidates.

Politics seem to be a sort of ‘men-club’, so I’m curious how receptive the ‘men in charge’ will be– and what effect, if any, have you noticed since Hillary decided to run for President? Are women going to be equal in the political arena?

I think that will happen naturally, it’s happening already. I think if you think about what is happening – there are 75% of women who fill the political positions of their fathers or husbands after they died, those are the women that are in there now. And I think it will be a long time before we see a group of women march forward running for office. We’ll have to see in 2012, I hope it would be sooner, but I actually don’t think that men have a choice about what’s happening now. For the last 40 years we’ve waited to become equal and I think that waiting is over, we’ve realized that they haven’t given it to us. So I think those days are over and that men need to join in because they will be facing female opponants and Hillary was just the beginning of showing us that we can hang with the big dogs.

What are some of the more important issues/problems with inequality?

We need three things. Equal pay. I’m willing to hang out at 77-cents to the white man’s dollar until our black sisters at 67-cents catch up – until our hispanic sisters at 57-cents catch up, and once we are all making 77-cents, we can all march to the block because I don’t want to leave them behind. Feminism is not a white women’s sport, it’s just we don’t have the double whammy of racism. The second thing is ownership of body – the fact and mentality that we are treated like property. If men got pregnant, no governement in the world would tell them what they could do with their bodies. The third thing is child care and elder care. It does fall primarily on women, and we are devalued because of it. If men had these responsibilites fall to them, corporations and government would help. Corporations would come up with perks to keep their men employed – their talent at the office – and the government would help out knowing they didn’t want to lose a valuable sector of the work force. I try to keep it simple on these three things, let’s get that acommplished and then move on.

You are also one of the founders/directors of the nonprofit organization Give It Up for the ARTS! Tell us about more about your involvement and the vision/work of the organization?

It’s to expose children who are at-risk or in a school which may be impoverished… to the arts. It’s dance, drama, music, fine arts, and usually we find a grass roots group, somebody out there working their butt off trying to bring something to a group of kids in at-risk neighborhoods. And that’s who I write a check to every year, and that’s who we look for.

Look to the Stars and Delinda thank Amy Sewell for speaking with us. For more information, please visit What’s Your Point, Honey.

Look To The Stars News: Amy Sewell

Honeys We Love: Eric DeArmon

Related past articles

Honeys We Love: John Kimbrough

Related past articles

Look To The Stars Asks Amy Sewell

Related past articles