Out Spotlight CVXX

Today's Out Spotlight is the organization POWER UP (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up). It is the only non-profit film production company and educational organization for women and the GLBTQ community.

It was founded in 2000 by film producers Stacy Codikow and Amy Shomer with the mission "to promote the visibility and integration of gay women in entertainment, arts and all forms of media," they have done that with "challenging perception through film,". Women have been, and remain, terribly underrepresented in all levels of the industry, and lesbian content is the least financed entertainment product. Codikow, decided to run POWER UP as a fulltime volunteer choosing to step away from her successful career as a television writer and film producer. They created a place to educate GLBTQ women and help unify and create good films that represent the GLBTQ community. The members of POWER UP include men and women, gay and straight.

POWER UP develops, finances, produces and distributes award winning films as well as conducts successful educational programs through hands-on filmmaking mentorships, classes, workshops and seminars. It provides career, script, television and film counseling and publishes it's own magazine. POWER UP also awards notable contributors to the arts, entertainment and the GLBTQ community. And they bolster the community; unifying and validating GLBTQ persons all around the world through their films.

Over the past 9 years its films and Awardees have garnered much respect and media attention as well as POWER UP's‚ "10 Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz" and this past year adding "Amazing Gay Men in Showbiz."

POWER UP's programs are run by volunteers and/or people working for a very modest stipend to make this all happen. They choose to put their monies into their educational programs, films and member services than into salaries or operational costs out of respect to the donors and in service of GLBTQ community. It runs entirely on donations of corporations and individuals.

In 2004, POWER UP was awarded the Leadership Award by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Although its mission is geared towards gay women, they have always been an integrated organization and has supported men & women, gay, transgendered & straight within all of their programs and films. After Prop 8's passage, the demand for GLBTQ equality became a more paramount mission for everyone in the GLBTQ community and POWER UP felt and even stronger need to unify. With that they decided to expand their mission, awards and programs to include men, officially became Co-Ed in June 2009.

In 2008 POWER UP started their PSA Program, and produced and distributed two Marriage Equality PSA Campaigns, comprised of 23 individual commericals: the Stop the Hate, Vote No on 8(LINK), which was the only celebrity “No on Prop 8” commercial and the Get to Know Us First Campaign (LINK), which is the first campaign with real gay families. POWER UP also produced the important STOP Domestic Violence (LINK) music video for the out-artist Melange Lavonne. All of their PSA's can be seen on their website.

POWER UP's most successful educational curriculum has been its unique Filmmaking Program, through which POWER UP has produced 14 films over the last 8 yrs and has launched careers for countless women and men in all fields. Some examples of their success stories include: writer/director Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S., HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, the L word); writer/director Jessica Sharzer (SPEAK, untitled DUSTY SPRINGFIELD project); writer/director Cherien Dabis (AMERIKA, producer L WORD); and writer/director Colette Burson (Creator of the HBO series HUNG.)

They also provides funding and assistance to filmmakers, as well as producing its own films. After several short films, their first feature film was the comedy Itty Bitty Titty Committee directed by Jamie Babbit.



POWER UP
POWER UP (Facebook)