Enjoy our weekly, themed program of short films created by our Girls Club members, along with our favorite movie picks made outside the Club.
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2020 Tough Broads Online Film Festival
April 5, 2020 – May 31, 2020
2020 Tough Broads Film Festival
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Week 1: Out of this Universe
Premieres April 5th, 12:00pm
While us Tough Broads are stuck at home this week, it wasn’t always so, and we know that this won’t be forever. There’s a big universe out there- and we’re going! So pack your bags and turn on the TV!
This week’s program opens with an amazing animation just completed by the very talented Girls Club animation class! Followed by a clip from our NASA Space Apps Challenge Application, because we can’t ever get enough space. We’ve done the challenge two years in a row and look forward to participating again this coming October.
Adventures in Outer Space — 5:27m
Over the course of 14 weeks, our middle schoolers in animation classes worked on this short film in 2019. From designing the puppets and set from scratch, starting with sketches to coming up with a script and recorded the lines together – we can do it ALL!
Space Apps Girls — 0:52m
Calling all women dreamers, doers, star-gazers and space cadets! Girls and their mentors spend three days getting creative and cultivating projects within the challenges from NASA. We’re so excited to be participating in 2020!
Need more space? Here are our recommendations for this week at home. There’s no better time than now, while you have time, to see these Hollywood classics. Google and find:
Hidden Figures (2016)
The untold story of the Black Women Mathematicians who helped win the Space Race. (93% on the tomatometer). If you missed it, now’s your chance to see Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe in starring roles.
Gravity (2013)
Two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) work together to survive after an accident in space. (96% on the tomatometer). Directed by Alfonso Cuaron.
Week 2: Farmers Feed the City
Premieres April 16th, 6:00pm
The Lower Eastside Girls Club has been involved in the sustainable agriculture movement since our founding in 1996. It’s even in our mission statement: “Raising the next generation of Environmental, Entrepreneurial, and Ethical leaders.”
From our first summer (long ago!) running Farm Girls Camp at Breezy Hill Orchards in the Hudson Valley, to our current rooftop farm on Avenue D — we have always respected the people who grow and supply out food.
Joining the Immokalee Farmworkers Wendy’s Boycott
Our participation with the Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers / Fair Food Movement goes way back. In the past 15 years we have sent two teams of girls and staff to their headquarters in Immokalee Florida for training.
Phat or Fat? Our First Farmers Market on Avenue D
Here in NYC we support our local farmers. We have run summer Farmers Markets on Houston Street and on the Avenue D land where our building now stands. And CSAs back at our 1st Street location. Today we are members of the 6th St. Community Center (Norwich Farms) CSA and also source for our kitchen from Breezy Hill Orchards and Smallhold Mushrooms.
This week’s viewing tips are a “Farm Film Festival” unto themselves!
Cesar Chavez (Netflix, 2014)
A biography of the civil rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez.
And what a line up: Directed by Diego Luna and starring our very own board member, Rosario Dawson, as Dolores Huerta.
Dolores (Amazon Prime, 2017)
Portrait of labor activist and feminist icon Dolores Huerta. This is a must-see, 5-star documentary! Dolores was featured in our very first Tough Broads Film Festival. Dolores Huerta is still on the frontlines for farmworkers and food justice at the age of 90!
Fantastic Fungi (Vimeo on Demand, 2019)
Takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale ..this is one of the most beautiful docs out for science wonks, photographers and everyone else. Another 5 stars on Rotten Tomatoes! Fun Fact: we grow our own mushrooms at the Girls Club, in partnership with Smallhold!
The Biggest Little Farm (2018, available widely)
A testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives (and it wasn’t easy). This doc was shortlisted for an Oscar, and our girls watched every minute…now that says a lot! 🙂
What’s On your Plate (2009, Amazon Prime)
Over the course of one year, the film follows two eleven-year-old multiracial city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. Watch closely and you’ll see Girls Club members planting vegetables at the Angel Family Farm in Orange County, NY. The Angel’s daughters were once Girls Club members. We really do have deep roots in the agriculture world!
Special shout-out this week, to our new farmer friends and supporters from Dig Inn! Learn more about them, here: www.diginn.com/mission
April 20th, on Vimeo
Week 3: Earth Day 2020
“In the end we will conserve only what we love,
we will love only what we understand,
and we will understand only what we are taught.”
—Baba Dioum (Senegalese Environmentalist)
The mission of The Lower Eastside Girls Club is: “Raising the Next Generation of Ethical, Entrepreneurial and Environmental Leaders”.
Since our founding in 1996, we have been teaching, preaching and protecting our Mother Earth. One of the most effective ways that we do this is by introducing urban girls to the vast expanse of environmental diversity. In the winter we travel to other locales: the mountains and rainforests of Chiapas, Mexico; the bayous of Louisiana, the Pacific Coast of California. Spring and Fall might find us at an Apple Orchard in the Hudson Valley, and every summer we rent a camp in the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states: the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.
A Brave and Startling Truth
This week’s offerings start with a media interpretation / performance piece of the Maya Angelou poem: “A Brave and Startling Truth”. A wake up call for all of us!
From Camper to Counselor
Meet Jenna Otero, one of our many members whose ‘camp experience’ becomes a turning point in the life of a growing environmental biologist.
What is the Magic of Camp Life?
The following three shorts will show you.
- 2015 Fowler: vimeo.com/134355260
- 2016, with Glasgow, NOLA, Hudson: https://vimeo.com/175897264
- 2018: https://vimeo.com/276129032
A magical animation set in a NYC park.
And here are three unique recommendations for the rest of this Earth week.
Microplastic Madness (watch here)
From our Girls Club partners and resident environmental organization, Cafeteria Culture, we present Microplastic Madness. Profiling a group of local 5th graders leading the campaign against plastic pollution.
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code
Produced by the brilliant environmental filmmaker and Girls Club Board Member Judith Helfand, this film delves into disaster preparedness in our age of overwhelming environmental crisis. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code is now re-streaming on PBS Independent Lens through June 16, 2020
DIRT (watch here)
An amazing find: Dirt documents the early days (1990s) of the Community Garden movement in the East Village. Before the bars and restaurants, condos and trendy shops- all we had was rubble and dirt. With the help of Mother Nature, a community was reclaimed and a paradise was born.