Angelina Jolie: "There Is So Much We Have to Change and Fight For" | Women in Entertainment 2017 - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Angelina Jolie delivers the keynote speech at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast.

Transcript

00:00I imagine many of us in the room began this morning at home making breakfast

00:05and listening and doing last-minute homework and listening

00:10and debating the importance of brushing teeth

00:13and listening after you say you have to get ready now

00:19and they say, why don't you just go like that?

00:22And you're so tired, you think, well, maybe.

00:25But that's the life of a woman.

00:32To think of others first is our nature.

00:35And when my children asked me this morning, I explained why I wanted to be here,

00:40why I feel it's important to be with other women

00:42and talk about those women and women in art.

00:47All of us here are different people, but we have something quite radical in common.

00:52We have the freedom to be artists, the freedom to create,

00:58to challenge authority fearlessly,

01:01to laugh at power and make others laugh with us,

01:05the right to speak truth as we see it.

01:09We all know women in our lives who were never able to live their creative dreams

01:14because they had to put their families first,

01:17who poured their creative work into homework assignments and birthday parties.

01:21I think of my own mom.

01:24And we all know that our industry lacks diversity and equality

01:29and that there is so much that we have to change and fight for.

01:36But we have a level of freedom that is unimaginable

01:40for millions of other women around the world,

01:43women who live with conflict and terrorism and displacement and poverty,

01:50who never get a chance,

01:54whose voices are always silenced.

01:56We don't have to keep our heads down.

02:01We don't have to think that the film we make or our comment on politics

02:05or joke we tell on stage could land us in prison,

02:08where we might be tortured or punished.

02:11We don't live with censorship.

02:13We don't have to worry that acting in a play or singing on television

02:17will bring violence or dishonor to our families.

02:20We don't have to tailor our clothes or our opinions

02:25to what is acceptable to religious authorities or violent extremist groups.

02:31We are not shunned and considered immoral as women

02:35because we dare to speak our mind about what we consider to be wrong in society.

02:40We have the right to think freely and to speak freely

02:48and to put forward our ideas on equal terms.

02:54And there are women across the world who face serious danger and get hurt

02:58just trying to have a voice, just an opinion.

03:05So it's hard to celebrate our progress while this is still the case,

03:10but it means that asserting ourselves as female artists

03:14represents something really, really important in the world today.

03:19In participating in art and culture,

03:22it's not a luxury for a privileged few in society.

03:28It is, in fact, a human right

03:32laid down in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

03:36Every woman has a right not only to independence and security,

03:42but to live her life to the full

03:45and to express herself to the full,

03:48including through art and ideas as well as politics.

03:53And that right is denied so often to women

03:56because it is so powerful.

04:01Art influences and it catches the imagination.

04:04It challenges orthodoxy.

04:07And societies where women are denied freedom of expression,

04:12those societies are being shaped

04:14without the voice and influence and wisdom of women.

04:21So that is why I am so grateful to be a part of this community

04:25and the wider community of artists around the world.

04:29I am so happy to be here with you today.

04:32And so together,

04:34we stand for more than our own rights and freedoms,

04:38but we do stand for the freedoms and rights of all women.

04:42We have in this room the ability to help those women,

04:47artists struggling,

04:49to help find a way to make sure their voices are heard,

04:53to show solidarity with them,

04:57to champion them,

04:59to help them tell their stories.

05:02So I look forward to working with many of you,

05:05all of you,

05:06on that effort.

05:09I thank you.

05:11I thank the Hollywood Reporter for this event,

05:13for allowing us to be together and to speak.

05:15And I congratulate everyone being acknowledged,

05:19particularly everyone involved in the scholarship program,

05:22and the girls.

05:25And I want to thank all the amazing women artists

05:31I've worked with over the years

05:33and learned so much from.

05:35Sherry.

05:38And I pay tribute,

05:40I know we all do,

05:42to all the women who came before us,

05:45who pushed the boundaries in their lifetime,

05:48so that we could be standing here today.

05:52And above all,

05:53pay tribute to the women,

05:55artists,

05:56journalists,

05:56human rights defenders,

05:58and lawyers around the world,

06:00who refuse to be intimidated.

06:02The brave people who are fighting,

06:05so that others,

06:06one day,

06:08will have the freedoms that we have.

06:11So I'm very, very proud to stand with all of you.

06:15Thank you very much.

06:16Thank you very much.

Angelina Jolie: "There Is So Much We Have to Change and Fight For" | Women in Entertainment 2017

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