Most Americans believe the US Constitution protects gender equality. It does not.
The 100 year fight for an Equal Rights Amendment requires tending old wounds to build a truly inclusive movement.
This film is about the brave women trying to do just that.
RATIFIED
RATIFIED is a feature documentary about the 100-year struggle for constitutional gender equality, an inspiring story of a multi-racial, multi-generational, bi-partisan effort to make Virginia the 38th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. It's also a story of how bureaucracy is used to stifle progress, and it takes a close look at the incredible perseverance of women - specifically, the Black women leaders who have taken their rightful place at the front of the movement for gender equality. Our impact campaign will activate 15,000,000 Americans on the issue of gender equality.
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the basis of sex.”
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the basis of sex.”
When the Equal Rights Amendment was first put forward in 1924, women were still considered the legal property of their husbands.
Much has changed in the last hundred years, but despite tremendous gains, American women still experience second class citizenship in pay, healthcare, legal protection and, perhaps most importantly, in the public imagination. And gender-based legislation is putting young people and families at risk every day. The Equal Rights Amendment would put gender equality in the Constitution, creating a crucial legal precedent to protect from gender-based discrimination and enshrine bodily autonomy.
Our team
This multi-generational team has been working together for the last 8 years - and it’s only through this coalition of women fed up with the current systems that any of this has been possible.
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Deborah Riley Draper
CO-DIRECTOR
Deborah Riley Draper is an Emmy and NAACP Image award-nominated writer, director and award-winning filmmaker. Deborah most recently completed directing the A&E docu-series JAMES BROWN: SAY IT LOUD, produced by Academy Award winner Ahmir Thompson and Mick Jagger. Website.
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Sabaah Folayan
CO-DIRECTOR
Sabaah made her directorial debut at the 2017 sundance film festival, with the feature length documentary Whose Streets?. supported by Ford, Macarthur and other foundations, and nominated for Peabody, Critic’s Choice, Gotham and NAACP awards, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Website.
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Emily Best
CO-CREATOR
Emily has produced films, VR, shorts and series that have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance, Tribeca and more. She is best known for “Fck Yes” the digital series on sexual consent, where her writing and directing work has over 50M views. Work she has produced has shown at Sundance (HARD WORLD FOR SMALL THINGS), Slamdance (AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL), SXSW (GUEST ROOM) and more. TFI Profile.
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Megan Goedewaagen
PRODUCER
Megan Goedewaagen is a producer. In 2019 she produced PRIDE, the FX docuseries on the history of the LGBTQ movement as well as DEAR ZOE, a feature film starring Sadie Sink (of STRANGER THINGS). She line produces Al Gore’s 24 HOURS OF REALITY, a show about the climate crisis, viewed annually in over half a billion homes worldwide. Megan works for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her production work includes The Oscars, The Emmys, THOR: DARK WORLD, BEYOND STRANGER THINGS and Discovery’s SHARK WEEK.
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Eve M. Cohen
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Eve had two feature films released theatrically in 2023. MENDING THE LINE (director Joshua Caldwell) and THE OTHER ZOEY (director Sara Zandieh). She established herself as a pioneer in Virtual Reality filmmaking with THE VISITOR (AFI 2016, SFiFF 2016) and HARD WORLD FOR SMALL THINGS (Sundance 2016, Tribeca 2016). Her position as an innovator in this new frontier led her to ASHE ‘68 (Sundance 2019, Tribeca 2019) nominated for a Sports Emmy in 2019, and speaking on many panels and classrooms. Most recently she filmed DOJA CAT: SCARLET TOUR for Meta, a multi-camera stereoscopic immersive experience, released Jan 2024.
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Sarah Adina Smith and Jonako Donley
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Sarah Adina Smith is a writer-director most recently known for her work on the Golden Globe nominated series Lessons in Chemsitry, starring Brie Larson. Sarah won a Directors Guild of America Award for her episode “Her and Him." She and Jonako Donley have produced four feature films together under their banner Everything is Everything, including The Midnight Swim (2014), Buster’s Mal Heart (2017), Birds of Paradise (2021), and The Drop (2023).
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Kacie Lett Gordon and Katie Louise Mullins
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Kacie Lett Gordon and Katie Louise Mullins are best friends, neighbors, and business partners. In 2021, they co-founded IT ALL Media - a women centered media company rewriting the narrative on modern womanhood through story and conversation. They serve as Executive Producers and Patrons for storytelling and research projects spanning podcast, film, TV, events, and brand partnerships.
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EP and SALES
Laura is the CEO and Founder of Rebelle Media. Laura has over twenty years of experience in film and television development, production, strategy, sales and financing. She produced Mr. Malcolm’s List for Bleecker Street Media and Universal Pictures and is an Executive Producer on Hulu’s hit television series Tell Me Lies. Previous credits include Producer on Sony Pictures’ Long Weekend, Executive Producer on An Acceptable Loss, and Co-Executive Producer on All About Nina and Little Woods. Laura was previously a film finance and sales agent at CAA and a creative executive at Twentieth Century Fox and Edward Saxon Productions.
