Native New Yorker and screenwriter, Holly Bower, has just released a video parody, Noodling `Round with Viagra, which has been picked up and featured by The Huffington Post, and is gaining traction around the globe with women of all ages.
Bower explains her inspiration for the video, “I’m lying in bed late one night and again see the ubiquitous Viagra commercial where a woman states she’d rather have a man in bed than a book. Having several women friends who had confidentially said the opposite, I realize this might make a terrific video parody.” Bower completed the video in August 2015 and launched it, in part, as a message that more women directors, producers, and writers are needed in the film industry.
This message was recently echoed in an interview conducted at the Telluride Film Festival with Michael Keaton, Meryl Streep, and Rachel McAdams, who were discussing the subject of women’s role in the film industry in a summit on non-fiction film as reported by Benjamin Lee in The Guardian. Keaton noted, “There’s a relationship in [the script] between a man and a woman and my first question was, not to be politically correct because you hire the best person, but is there a woman out here who can direct this? I had a gut feeling that a woman would have a cooler take on this.”
In addition, Geena Davis called for gender parity in the entertainment industry in an impassioned speech at the London Film Festival as reported by Robert Mitchell of Variety. Davis drew particular attention to the representation of women and girls in children’s programming where male characters outnumber females three-to-one. “Surely in the 21st Century we should be showing kids that boys and girls share the sandbox equally. Let’s not embed a negative image,” said the Oscar-winning actress. “We are unwittingly training generation after generation to see men and women as unequal. We need to dramatically change the way women are depicted to children aged 11 and under.”
Ongoing ageism and sexism inherent in the film industry motivated Bower to write, direct, and produce this video in order to gain attention to her yet-to-be sold film scripts. Bower adds, “My purpose in creating this parody is to gain attention, as a writer, to enable me to sell my film scripts. As a former professional photographer, magazine writer, and now script writer, my soon to be 78 years is an obstacle. Of course I create characters who are older, such as in my comedy Teach Me Tonight, a naughty comedy about two women in their early 50s who hire a faux gay man to teach them what they’ve long forgotten about sex.”
Holly Bower, the first woman union still photographer in the motion picture industry, sued Local 644, IATSE, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and received her union membership in October, 1974. Shortly thereafter, Sydney Pollack, director of Three Days of the Condor, asked Bower to shoot the lonely, isolated photographs which depict Faye Dunaway’s character. These photographs remain an integral part of this film’s texture. Bower has taken still photographs for over 40 features and television shows. She has three screenplays to her credit.
To view the video and discover more about Bower’s screenplays, visit http://www.NoodlingRoundwithViagra.com/