TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "CODE: DEBUGGING THE GENDER GAP"

BY CHRISENA RICCI 

The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...

This film falls into the category of things that I didn't know, that I didn't know. For example, I know that there are gender gaps in several professional fields, but I had no idea that there was one in computer coding. Further than that, I could have never guessed how bad that gap truly is. That's where this film comes in. It explores in great detail where women are in the computer science field, where they used to be and examines both the causes for this as well as some possible solutions.

Did you know that it was a woman that created the phrase there's a 'bug' in the system? Did you know that women were the first coders in the United States? I didn't. I didn't know anything about women in computer science.

There were a few things that really stuck out to me. I liked that the film wasn't afraid to force the audience members to use their brains. It was a very intelligent film that used some very interesting and clean diagrams and charts to describe social trends. The subject matter is dealing with a field of science, but the filmmakers build a story that is easily digestible and memorable. I will never get out of my head some of the studies the film explores about the pressure on women to compete with their male counterparts. If you were unaware that women have a more difficult go of it in their career lives, this should be a must see. My favorite thing from this film was the emphasized truth that there is no inherent difference between a man and a women's brain. None, whatsoever. Society is the one that convinces women that computer coding is a place they do not belong.

Hopefully, this film can help change that stigma.

VERDICT: SEE IT

DIRECTED BY Robin Hauser Reynolds

Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com

CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.