Rotorua's Lizzie Marvelly will appear alongside a number of prominent New Zealand women in the new film Revolt She Said. Photo / File
Rotorua's Lizzie Marvelly will appear alongside a number of prominent New Zealand women in the new film Revolt She Said. Photo / File
Rotorua's Lizzie Marvelly will appear alongside a number of prominent New Zealand women in a new film shining a light on the country's gender equality - or the lack of it.
The documentary premieres today in line with International Women's Day.
New Zealand female icons including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, journalist Alison Mau, artist and advocate Lizzie Marvelly and leading academic Dr Pani Farvid all feature.
Created by Kiwi filmmaker Louise Lever, Revolt She Said, features raw and compelling insights into the current feminist revolution here and abroad.
Lever described the documentary as a "call to arms" and hoped to inspire a new generation of women to continue the fight of their forebears.
"It is my true hope that people will see the film, especially young women and decide; 'I'm worth it. My voice is powerful, I am visible.' I hope that women will revolt and men will join them."
She believed gender equality would not be seen in this lifetime and gender parity in economics was more than 257 years away.
"It's an embarrassment to live in a so-called 'liberal democracy' where one gender is profoundly unequal and I think we've had enough," she said.
In the documentary, Clark discussed the difficulties facing modern women and New Zealand's poor reputation globally for gender-based domestic and familial violence.
"I think to be a feminist, you've got to have an innate characteristic of being a fighter because you have to campaign, you have to jostle, you can't be passive and inert.
"We have to make sure that there really is a real choice for all women to choose the lives that they want to lead. Do they want both family and career; are we making that as possible as we should for women," she said.
She said she was "very unhappy" New Zealand had one of the highest rates for domestic and gender-based and family violence.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark will also appear in the new documentary film. Photo / File
"This is wrong ... until we get over that, then we can't really say we've achieved gender equality for women, because beating up women is an attitude that says it's okay to do this, and it isn't. That's a profoundly unequal set of attitudes," she said.
Mau said there was an urgent need for more discussion and greater action in addressing gender inequity.
"If I hear one more person say, we were the first to give women the vote, I think I'll scream. That's wonderful, but it happened in the 1890s, and we have problems here today, that haven't been resolved, that affect more than half of the population," she said.
The film also features coming out stories from the LGBTQIA+ community and explores themes of identity, gender, politics, queer identity, power and women's roles.
Journalist Alison Mau will share her views in the new documentary film. Photo / Supplied
Lever said discomfort was "part of change".
"With social media things are often discussed in a few sound bites. That's not life. I want to encourage people to log off, open the door, get outside and revolt, protest, be loud, make people uncomfortable - that is where the magic happens."
Revolt She Said premieres today at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket Auckland, followed by screenings in Wellington, Queenstown, Dunedin and Melbourne.
Following the film's release in Australasia, it will be screened at the Montreal Independent Film Festival, Chicago Indie Film festival and the Montreal Women's International Film Festival.
