Using Improvised Movies to Empower Young Women and Girls

I’ve wanted for a while to write a post about Nancy Fletcher’s ACT NOW! organization.  Starting in 2000 Nancy took the unique approach of using improvised movies as a vehicle to help empower young women.  The girls participating in the ACT NOW! programs do everything to make their movie, writing the scenario from which the action is improvised, making sets and costuming as well as filling the roles of director and producers.  Nancy’s stated mission is “to help people, especially young girls, change their experience of themselves, so that they feel connected to their authentic power to create, see options, make healthy choices and star in their own lives.”  And she has another subversive agenda of encouraging young women to enter the film industry.

Nancy’s work attracted the attention of two psychologists at Mount Holyoke College, Maureen Babineau and Becky Wai-Ling Packard who conducted a research study investigating the program’s learning outcomes.  They discovered a success rate of raising self-esteem by 95% with at-risk populations and 83% with the general population.  I think the summary of their research says it best:

Participants in the February 2007 study unanimously described their experiences as positive, motivating, and full of excitement. Girls learned to cooperate with one another in a wholly female environment by building teamwork skills and forming friendships. The work the girls undertook challenged gender stereotypes. One participant’s mother commented that she was impressed that the process enabled the girls to play all the roles in the video. Gender-blind casting forced girls to branch out from the conventional commercial female characters. Eliminating co-ed distractions, such as impressing boys, created an atmosphere that empowered the girls. The study found that participants focused on problem-solving and connecting with one another intellectually and emotionally.

The psychologists reported “the self-esteem increases appeared to be related to the program’s design to elicit and take seriously the ideas of the participants.” When asked about their experiences, participants mentioned the level of self-respect they gained, noting that this developed from the validation continuously given to them by faculty. Not only did the staff validate participants’ ideas but they also remained thoughtful listeners throughout the program. The study described the “ ACT NOW! Staff [as having] very good communication with the girls and [as being] especially skilled at guiding the process.” This essential part of the program was shown to have positive lasting effects on participants.

I knew that the Feministing community would be interested in Nancy and ACT NOW!’s work but I’ve been spurred to finally write this post because others are gaining interest too and Nancy needs to find and train more coaches.  If this is something you think you would like learn more about visit the ACT NOW! site (there are some great testimonials from the girls there too).   I’m over on the west coast and don’t have time to attend this year’s training and support Nancy’s great work empowering young women but hope that there will be some Feministing community members who do.