In honor of Women’s Equality Day and to begin the new “So She Did” campaign platform, HBO Max is releasing a film to celebrate women who have been told they are “too much.” The film will feature nine female-identifying talent that break all the rules to be authentically who they are, including Jordan Alexander (Gossip Girl), Laura Donnelly (The Nevers), Susie Essman (Curb), Myha’la Herrold (Industry), Martha Plimpton (Genera+ion), Lisa Ling (CNN’s This is Life with Lisa Ling), Hannah Einbinder (Hacks), Zión Moreno (Gossip Girl), and Eyricka Lanvin (Legendary).
HBO Max will also be donating to four nonprofits: Girls Write Now, Poderistas, Women of Color Unite, and Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. The intention behind these donations is to ensure that they help a multitude of female experiences and backgrounds. This new platform is meant to prioritize diversity and inclusion first instead of servicing “women” as a monolith.
“Our programming has always been at the forefront in celebrating diverse and authentic stories for our audiences that we believe encourage conversation and push culture forward,” Dana Lichtenstein, Vice President, Brand Marketing at HBO Max and HBO, expressed in a press release. “In the spirit of honoring Women’s Equality Day today and every day, we came up with ‘So She Did,’ an initiative that, at its core, is about rule breaking. A platform that is less about what women have in common and more about what happens when we dare to celebrate our unique differences.”
The HBO Max So She Did evergreen initiative celebrates rule-breaking women of all backgrounds. It is about the acts and behaviors that women perform, exactly how they want to and often in contradiction to what is expected of them, on-screen and in real life. When women act exactly how they feel and express their true selves, it moves the conversation around what it means to be a woman forward. It paves the way for more women to be themselves.
Wanting to recognize pioneers behind the camera, there will also be “So She Did” sections across HBO Max’s Homepage, Series and Movies Page, Documentaries Page, Comedy Page, and the HBO Hub.
This selection will present some of HBO Max’s favorite powerful females behind shows, including Lovecraft Country (Misha Green), Summer Camp Island (Julia Pott), and Steven Universe (Rebecca Sugar). There will also be spotlighted films, such as Bessie (Dee Rees), Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke), and LFG (Andrea Nix).
The comedies page will have titles like Going the Distance (Nanette Burstein) as well as Insecure (Issa Rae). On a documentaries page, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Liz Garbus) and Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple) will be highlighted. My Brother Luca (Catalina Serna), Frida (Julie Taymor), and Senseless (Penelope Spheeris) can be seen on the HBO Hub.
