Discover the Story Behind the Movement
Still Working 9 to 5 explores what has and has not changed for women over the last 40+ years since the release of the hilarious workplace comedy 9 to 5 in 1980.
Major release of this award winning film coming soon.
Still Working 9 to 5 is a documentary that explores the still-relevant gender disparity in today’s workplace and society, and whether progress has been made since the 1980 release of the blockbuster comedy 9 to 5 about 3 secretaries fighting for basic workplace equality. The documentary includes commentary from the original 9 to 5 cast members Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman, as well as Rita Moreno, Allison Janney, and leaders of prominent women’s rights organizations including Lilly Ledbetter, Zoe Nicholson, Karen Nussbaum, Ellen Cassedy and women of all ages and backgrounds discussing their everyday lived experiences.
Camille Hardman is an Emmy nominated director and producer, who has been creating documentaries and reality TV series in both her native Australia and Los Angeles. She started in TV in Sydney over 15 years ago making animal and travel documentaries before turning to human interest documentaries and film. Five years ago Camille created the popular DIY Network/ HGTV series ‘Restored’ which has spread the importance of restoration around the globe. Camille has produced and directed documentaries that have screened on many networks including Discovery, Lifetime, TruTV, National Geographic, ABC, Channel 7, and her documentaries have been accepted in to acclaimed international film festivals.
Gary and Larry Lane grew up in Goldsboro NC, currently in Hollywood chasing dreams. They are award winning documentary film makers. Their debut documentary “Hollywood to Dollywood” screened in 70 film festivals around the world and won 25 best documentary awards in total. It also featured 15 original Dolly Parton songs. They also own and operate TwinzZone Productions and cover events and red carpets around the world. They always make a first impression twice. They are also proud to be 50,000 winners on both “NBC’s Fear Factor” and “ABC’s WIPEOUT!” Appearing in various films and commercials since moving to Hollywood in 2004. We are always looking for the next adventure. So please stay tuned.
Founder and CEO of Artemis Rising, Regina dedicates herself and her foundation to supporting media that transform culture and challenge the status quo. Their mission is to elevate powerful stories about pressing social justice issues, such as gender bias, healing, trauma, mental health, addiction and empowerment. She has helped produce hundreds of the most impactful documentary films of the past decade, including The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground, Ms. Representation, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, The Truffle Hunters, Common Ground, Miracle on 74th Street and Mrs. Robinson. Many of her films have received Peabody, Emmy and Academy Awards.
Geralyn White Dreyfous is an Academy Award winning producer with a wide, distinguished background in the arts. Geralyn’s independent executive producing and producing credits include the Academy Award winning BORN INTO BROTHELS (2004);Academy Award nominated and Peabody Award winning THE INVISIBLE WAR (2012), Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning THE SQUARE (2013), and Emmy Award winning 16 SHOTS (2019) as well as multiple festival winners and nominees such as MISS REPRESENTATION (2011), THE HUNTING GROUND (2015), BENDING THE ARC (2017), THE JUDGE (2017), STEP (2017), BE NATURAL (2018), WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (2018), ALWAYS IN SEASON (2019), THE GREAT HACK (2019), US KIDS (2020), and THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (2020). Geralyn stands as Founder and Board Chair of Utah Film Center, Co-Founder of Impact Partners, and a founding member of Gamechanger Films.
Executive Producer Steve Summers grew up in Harriman TN where he attended Harriman High School. After graduation he attended FIT where he studied design, as well as becoming a performer at Dolly’s Parton’s theme park “Dollywood”. It was here he first met Dolly and was handpicked to become her personal trusted costume designer, which lead him to become a creative powerhouse as Creative Director at “”Dolly Parton Enterprises and Producer of the upcoming ‘Heartstrings’ 8 part anthology series screening on Netflix late 2019, and Producer of Christmas on the Square, Netflix’s first original musical debuting in 2019. He currently lives in Nashville, TN.
Shane McAnally serves as a producer on the new NBC musical competition series “Songland,” and is a three-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter and record producer who has earned 38 No. 1 singles to date. McAnally was named Songwriter of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 2014 and Hot Country Songwriter of the Year by Billboard in 2015. McAnally earned a five-times-platinum No. 1 with “Body Like a Back Road,” written by Sam Hunt, McAnally, Josh Osborne and Zach Crowell. The single made history as the longest-reigning No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Song chart by a solo artist, spending 34 weeks atop the chart. He earned his latest No. 1 song in July of 2018 with Old Dominion’s “Hotel Key” and was named to Billboard’s 2018 Country Power Players list. McAnally also co-wrote Kacey Musgraves’ “Space Cowboy,” which recently won Best Country Song at the Grammys.
Oreet Rees is an award-winning documentary and trailer editor with over 25-years of experience in the entertainment industry. She has produced/directed/edited documentaries and edited a host of trailers for major motion pictures. Her trailer credits include, “Fight Club,” “The Notebook,” “Unfaithful,” and “Moulin Rouge.” Her documentary credits include “Playground,” about child sex trafficking in America (shortlisted for an Oscar nomination), “King Leopold’s Ghost,” a story of greed, terror, and heroism in the heart of Africa, and “1968: The year That Changed America” from executive producer Tom Hanks. In 2018 she co-produced & directed “Life-Love-Dogs,” a documentary about canine rescue and PTSD. Oreet is currently directing/editing “Tell It Slant,” an intimate story about coming of age in 1969. In addition to her filmmaking passions, in 2017 Oreet completed a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology with a focus on the work of Carl Jung.
Elisa Bonora has had an extensive career in editing and production, in both long and short formats. In 2019 she edited the Sundance Grand Jury nominated film “David Crosby: Remember My Name” produced by Cameron Crowe. In 2014, she was nominated for an ACE and an Emmy award for her work in the documentary films “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” and “No Subtitles Necessary, Laszlo and Vilmos,” respectively. In 2002 she started her long-format career when Oliver Stone asked her to edit “Comandante”, a feature-length documentary on Fidel Castro and Cuba. She edited a second Oliver Stone documentary, “South of the Border”, which premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. In 2012, she was the Additional Editor on Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary “Blackfish”, which was shortlisted for the Oscars and received an ACE Eddie nomination.
Brian Tweedt, SOC, is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s prestigious School of Cinematic Arts, a member of the Society of Camera Operators (SOC), a multiple Telly Award winner, and has over 20 years of experience in the motion picture industry having shot over 1000 episodes of unscripted television for cable and network TV including Discovery, Nat Geo, HGTV, DIY, Bravo, Lifetime, ABC, NBC to name a few. He is well known as a top single and multi-camera reality / documentary television director of photography, camera, MoVI, jib, and FAA Part 107 Certified Remote Pilot aerial operator.
The documentary opens with the deconstruction of the original “9 to 5” film and why it shone a light on gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace in the late 1970s. We discover how the concept for the film rose out of the women’s movement and Jane Fonda’s close friendship with fellow activist Karen Nussbaum and how, in 1973, Karen, along with her friend Ellen Cassedy, established the 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women, after experiencing many workplace indignities. We explore the seminal history of the organization, hosting informal get-togethers for female office workers who, during lunch breaks, shared their experiences of sexual harassment by male co-workers and bosses; low wages, degrading job tasks and being overlooked for deserved promotions. Such workplace indignities (rarely experienced by men) needed to be addressed, and the women who frequented these meetings finally had an opportunity to brainstorm together on ways to create change without jeopardizing their careers.
The Song “Still Working 9 to 5” showcases the clever use of comedy realized in “9 to 5,” to highlight these workplaces indignities, while making the movie palatable to a wide audience, including the kind of men at the time who dismissed the film as harmless entertainment. We follow how women on the other hand, finally seeing themselves reflected on screen, supported one another to fight sexism, stood up for themselves, and drew on new-found confidence and courage to stand up to ‘the boss,’ to fight for long-lasting change in their workplaces. We look at how Dolly Parton’s much-loved feminist anthem, “9 to 5,” trumpeted the film’s arrival and crystallized the working women’s message.
The documentary explores how the success of the original film spawned several “9 to 5” incarnations over the decades. The TV version of the 1980s lasted 85 episodes and starred the Emmy-nominated Rita Moreno, Rachel Dennison (Dolly’s sister), Valerie Curtin, and Sally Struthers. We discover that, although the 9 to 5 Association was originally involved in the development of the series, they became disillusioned with its deviation from the core message of female empowerment and felt it had become just another silly sitcom. In 2009, “9 to 5, The Musical” opened on Broadway with an all-star cast including Allison Janney, closing after only five months. We follow these ups and downs of the “9 to 5” franchise, mirroring in many ways the ups and downs of women’s fight for equal rights. We interview many of the cast and crew, as they use their sense of humor to tell of their behind-the-scenes observations and experiences. And, as the story continues in 2019, we film the opening (in London) of the latest production of the musical, as its dialogue and scenes are altered to reflect contemporary feminism, MeToo and Times Up, and discover the reactions of a new generation.
“Still Working 9 to 5” examines the correlation between what the original film began as – a cultural inflection point, and the subsequent evolution of the women’s movement. We explore the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, harassment in the workplace, pay gap, sexism, and discrimination, and interweave “9 to 5” and it’s various incarnations to debate its evolution over the last 40 years by speaking to writers, feminists and everyday people with their own workplace experiences. As “9 to 5” continues to resonate as a touchstone of classic feminist entertainment and inspiration, “Still Working 9 to 5” brings to life with colorful and comedic observations, why the film is as relevant today as the year it lit up the box office four decades ago.
