Director, Emily Elizabeth Thomas, & TBWA\Chiat\Day New York: #MeToo talks with a softer, more powerful voice

Hollywood has not always behaved well behind the scenes. #MeToo is the rejection of an era in which powerful men dominated powerless women. It’s a restoration of good behaviour and a balancing of power. The story must be told. Unfortunately, it is not always being told in the right way. Sensational headlines and tabloid stories turn good people off.

Director, Emily Elizabeth Thomas, and TBWA\Chiat\Day New York have told a quieter, more balanced story. One whose power isn’t diluted by a grab for front page attention. It’s a film in which three actors reveal what they were required to do for the promise of a part. They tell their stories in The Gathering as the characters for which they auditioned. One is a nun. The voice at the end of the film belongs to Ashley Judd, who began the #MeToo movement, when she told The New York Times about being harassed by Weinstein. She states, Every story matters. Even the ones Hollywood doesn’t tell. Judd had been promised the role of the elf queen, which is one of the characters in The Gathering. The waitress in the film is called Ronan, a reference to Ronan Farrow, the investigative journalist who broke the stories of the allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men, like Harvey Weinstein and Les Moonves. She can’t fully recognise the three women because they’ve never been in a film.

The film, which was produced by Derby Content, was made for the 2019 Brooklyn Film Festival, May 31 to June 9. It is running online to promote the film festival. Shorter cuts will run ahead of each BFF film program throughout the festival.

The actors and creators talk about their connection to The Gathering in the behind-the-scenes films: