Time's Up hosts first event at Tribeca Film Festival

Lupita Nyong'o, Julianne Moore, Ashley Judd and more spoke at the first New York City event hosted by the Time's Up organization at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend.

The event was put on to showcase "conversations with the women who are playing a pivotal role in raising awareness about inequality in the workplace."

Dozens of panelists appeared at the event including actresses, filmmakers, activists, and leaders in all facets of the world.

The Time's Up organization was initially founded in the wake of allegations against former studio chief Harvey Weinstein. In 2018, the organization has raised awareness and made donations to the fight against gender inequality and the legal sexual harassment and assault cases.

The day started with an introduction from Julianne Moore.

“When this movement started, I felt sure that I hadn’t personally been a victim of sexual harassment or assault. But I as I read and listened to the countless other women’s stories, I began to look at my experiences through a different lens. Our understanding of what is acceptable has been skewed by the fact that egregious behavior has been normalized by society and those who speak out have been the ones who are stigmatized, as opposed to the perpetrators. And then I realized that I had never spoken to my teenage daughter about these experiences that I had and how I handled them. The actions of Time’s Up prompted me to have important conversations with her about what behaviors are and are not acceptable."

Throughout the day, there were panels on diversity in the film industry, focusing on greater representation on and off screen. Of the 100 top grossing films in 2017, only 8% were helmed by women. Even though this year saw the first ever woman nominated for Best Cinematography in Rachel Morrison and Greta Gerwig becoming only the fifth woman nominated for Best Director, there is a long way to go.

Warner Brothers is one company showing initiative in this as they hired Patty Jenkins to helm Wonder Woman and look to Cathy Yan for the next DC movie. It's important to see women telling stories about women. It's a small stepping stone towards greater representation.

Lupita Nyong'o spoke about representation and figuring out ways to relate stories to a wider audience.

"As an actress who grew up watching everyone but myself, I feel like part of changing the narrative is changing the perspective of the narrative."

There was a panel discussing men in the movement featuring former NFL star, Wade Davis. Then, actress Marissa Tomei led a discussion on the Time's Up Defense Fund initiative.

Founder of the #MeToo Movement Tarana Burke gave a speech about Activism throughout generations along with Parkland student, Sofie Whitney.

The day concluded with 'A Letter to Survivors,' a speech and discussion led by Ashley Judd, one of the women to speak up first against Harvey Weinstein.

"I think when we change ourselves, we change the world. Don’t expect to have all of the healing all at once, Judd said at the event.

All the proceeds from the event went to the Time's Up Defense Fund to keep fighting these battles.

This day-long event on Saturday at Tribeca showcased the power of coming together for an incredible cause. If you weren't able to attend, you can still check out the amazing work that people are doing to fight for equality. You can make a donation to the Time's Up Defense Fund and raise awareness on the importance of this subject.

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