After a fiery storming of Park City’s Main Street in 2017, the Women’s March returned to Sundance on Saturday with a new mission: Get organized.
Jane Fonda, Marvel star Tessa Thompson, victims advocate and attorney Gloria Allred, rapper Common and more spoke at the event, held adjacent to Park City’s public library.
Last year’s march was a star-studded affair that came one day after Donald Trump’s inauguration and mourning and advocated for women’s reproductive and LGBT rights as well as lamenting Hillary Clinton’s presidential election loss.
This year was a wise leveraging of star power to focus on numerous issues in the era of President Donald Trump, as well as the concerns raised by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
“This kind of change doesn’t just come about through protest,” Fonda cried out to a packed public park. “It comes through organizing.”
Fonda spoke of Rosa Parks, who wasn’t just a civilian who refused to give up her bus seat — but rather a trained organizer with the NAACP who was ready to mobilize her community after her historic act of defiance.
Fonda also spoke at length about equal pay and representation, citing lower reports of sexual abuse in industries where women’s compensation is equal to men. She also emphasized the importance of women winning elected office at the state level, particularly governorships, since that office often determines congressional district lines.
Ever the rebel, Fonda sent a message to her industry peers who will sit for countless interviews with dozens of outlets throughout the Sundance Film Festival.
“Sundance is a media event. Let’s do everything we can to protect and expand public media. We have to counter the right wing echo chamber,” Fonda said.
Thompson, the breakout star of “Thor: Ragnarok,” went right for the president who is currently embroiled in a government shutdown after Congress failed to pass a temporary budget to keep non-essential federal operations funded.
“Your time and power may not yet be up, but our time to stay silent is,” Thompson said, addressing Trump directly.
Rapper Common took to the microphone and discussed a late night in a Los Angeles recording studio where he imagined women taking over the world. He shared the rhymes he came up with.
“Michelle Alexander wrote the new constitution,” Common spat of the author’s widely-discussed book “The New Jim Crow,” before he added: “Beyonce wrote the music for the revolution.”
He of course referenced “Lemonade,” Beyonce’s powerful 2016 visual album that served as a meditation of the African American female identity.
Additional speakers at the Sundance Respect Rally included Nick Offerman, Emmy winner Lena Waithe, and Utah Senate candidate Jenny Wilson.