The documentary “Embrace” was first released about 10 years ago, but local members of the international women and girls’ organization Zonta say its message is still just as resonant.
That’s why the Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley – dedicated to building “a better world for women and girls” – chose to screen “Embrace” at the Canyon Theater Guild for one of its major annual fundraisers, drawing about 125 attendees Friday evening.
“Embrace” stars Australian body image activist Taryn Brumfitt, who created the documentary after sharing pictures of herself online after gaining weight following her participation in a body building competition. The “after” pictures inverted the typical before-and-after progress photo formula, and the post garnered significant appreciation online from other women who’d gained weight after becoming mothers.
Maria Slotsve, who’s been volunteering with Zonta for a year and a half and chairs a handful of the club’s committees, was the original champion of using the documentary for Zonta’s fundraising efforts.
“I just knew it was such a good movie to match with bettering the lives of women and girls, because it’s very empowering,” Slotsve said. “Marketing tells us it’s OK to (self-shame) because we’re not the right size. There’s only one size in marketing and advertising. It’s neve the one that we’re at. When you’re conscious of that marketing coming at you, then you’re like, ‘OK, I don’t need what you’re trying to sell.’”
The club screened the roughly hour-and-a-half-long documentary before going to a Q&A with three panelists – a therapist, a longevity specialist and a social worker – to speak about how women can adopt a more functional, and less ornamental, relationship to their bodies.
Slotsve said that, for her, the significance of a mindset change when it comes to the mind-body relationship was one of the most important takeaways from the documentary.
“(The panelists) believe in longevity, versus getting tiny – not to punish your body, but to do things that are joyful, that you’re excited about, that makes you excited to jump on the trampoline or run a mile, or whatever it is that makes you happy, but not to punish yourself because you’re not into that size 4 yet,” Slotsve said.
Colleen Marrese-Reading, a former Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley secretary, said that the club has done big things for local women with its fundraising efforts. The club funds several grants, including one that goes to women going through significant life changes, such as a divorce or the death of a spouse. One woman was able to become a pilot with the grant, Marrese-Reading said.
To that end, Slotsve said Friday’s “Embrace” fundraiser was a big financial success – and came with a message more than worth their efforts to promote it.
“I knew it was worth the effort to go through to share this message with as many women and daughters that could have come in here,” Slotsve said. “So we had extra tickets … we were offering (them) to (College of the Canyons) for kids, and we were offering to kids that couldn’t afford it at certain high schools. I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s just fill out the theater with people who will need to hear the message even though they can’t afford it.’”
