DOVE Chocolate and Refinery29, a digital media company producing content for young women, have partnered to empower women in the film industry.
DOVE, a Mars Chocolate brand, will back the next installment in Refinery29’s Shatterbox Anthology, an initiative to highlight and support female filmmakers. DOVE and Refinery29 will also develop a video series exploring bean-to-bar chocolate making and sustainable cocoa sourcing.
Pamela Romanowsky, also a Women at Sundance Fellow, will direct the next Shatterbox Anthology film, “Khethiwe and the Leopard.” It follows Khethiwe, a 13-year-old South African girl struggling to retain her sense of playfulness and imagination in the face of bullying from her peers. She finds an unexpected ally in another outcast, a leopard inspiring fear around her community. Through their friendship, she discovers the power of her unique voice and intrepid spirit.
The short film will debut in 2017 on DOVE Chocolate digital channels, including Tumblr, and on Refinery29’s platforms.
“DOVE Chocolate is extremely proud to be a part of the Refinery29 Shatterbox Anthology initiative to support women working in film and talented filmmakers like Pamela Romanowsky,” says Brand Director Kerry Cavanaugh. “We feel the story she is telling through film would resonate well with the DOVE Chocolate audience as it is a truly beautiful story focusing on women’s empowerment that champions the inner strength found in every woman.”
Romanowsky agreed, adding she is excited to work with DOVE and Refinery29.
“As an emerging filmmaker, their unwavering support of vision and expression and freedom to celebrate the often underrepresented female point of view means everything,” she says. “As a girl, I cherished exploration and imagination more than anything, and with ‘Khethiwe and the Leopard,’ I wanted to revisit that feeling of adventure and the possibility of magic that is so important to women as they find their place in the world."
