THE BIG FLIP TO BE FACE OF AMERICA IN STATE DEPARTMENT'S FILM DIPLOMACY PROGRAM

Documentary exploring the rise of breadwinner moms and at-home dads will participate in the U.S. Department of State’s 2017-2018 American Film Showcase, its person-to-person cultural diplomacy program.

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2017—Premiering in California at The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival next week, The Big Flip—Stories from the Modern Home Front has been invited to the U.S. Department of State’s American Film Showcase for its 2017-2018 program. The Big Flip explores the “flipping” of traditional gender roles in American homes where the number of stay-at-home dads has doubled in the last two decades, and moms are breadwinners in 40% of families.

The American Film Showcase features independent films that offer a view of American society and culture. Working with 35-40 U.S. embassies and consulates, the program sends American documentarians and independent filmmakers on a person-to-person cultural diplomatic mission to foster understanding and cooperation, dialogue and debate.

“We are delighted to have our diverse Big Flip families be onscreen ‘diplomats,’ and show people around the world the challenges, triumphs and values of the modern American family,” said director Izzy Chan.

The invitation is particularly poignant since one of the earliest crowdfunding supporters for the film is Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman in the U.S. State Department to hold the Director of Policy Planning post. She famously wrote the article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” in The Atlantic shortly after she left the post.

“I just backed The Big Flip. Without change in attitudes and culture, we’re never going to get there,” Slaughter tweeted after pledging her support.

The media has covered the rise of breadwinner moms and at-home dads extensively since, with President Obama himself writing about the social pressures that big flip families face in Glamour magazine in 2016:

“We need to keep changing the attitude that congratulates men for changing a diaper, stigmatizes full-time dads, and penalizes working mothers. We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our sons for shedding a tear.”

Filmed over 18 months, The Big Flip follows four “flipped” families as they navigate the trials and triumphs of at-home fatherhood, mothers as main breadwinners, and changing life circumstances. Watch the film at one of its upcoming festival screenings:

The documentary was also officially selected for:

  • Austin Film Festival
  • Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
  • London Film Awards
  • The Annual Copenhagen Film Festival

Check out the film’s trailer.