The Force is Female at This Year’s Archer Film Festival

5/4/17 — The Archer School for Girls recently hosted its fifth annual Archer Film Festival, with Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy serving as the keynote speaker. Kennedy followed in the footsteps of some major Hollywood names, including previous keynote speakers J.J. Abrams, Nina Jacobson, and Vanessa Morrison, to name a few.

Kennedy spoke about Star Wars, gender equality, and her secrets to producing success. “’Right now women make up less than a quarter of all positions in the film industry, and less than a third of all speaking roles,” shared Kennedy. “These are all jobs that women can do, they just need to be given the chance … so, do, or do not. There is no try. The force is female.”

“One of the most important things that we need to teach girls is how to ask for what they want, so when they run an event like this, they go out and they get the theater donated, they get the food donated, they approach people like J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy to be their keynote speakers,” explained Head of School Elizabeth English. “They have to ask, and they learn sometimes people are going to say no, but guess what, often times people say yes.”

The Archer Film Festival is a high school student film festival dedicated to empowering female filmmakers. The goal is not to exclude men, but rather to include women. This year’s festival saw more than 800 submissions from high schoolers across the globe.