Local to Bring Documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap to Pensacola

Pensacola, Florida – All are encouraged to attend a one-time screening and the Pensacola premier of CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap at the Carmike Cinemas Bayou 15 theater on Thursday, February 18 at 6:30 PM.

The film explores why more American women and minorities do not pursue careers in computer science despite high demand and lucrative job opportunities.

The pioneer computer programmers — those first to grasp that coded instructions were more important than the machines reading them — were mostly female. With computer science now touching almost every aspect of life, women are barely represented in a coding community urgently seeking more skilled workers. With humor and optimism, CODE considers how we reached this crossroad and charts a course toward a more balanced tech workforce delivering superior products designed by and for all.

Ann Novakowski arranged to screen this groundbreaking documentary in Pensacola inspired after first seeing it at the AFI DOCS Film Festival.

“This film was inspiring to me especially as a woman who works with developers and programmers frequently. Digital literacy and familiarity with basic programming concepts will be just as important to our children and the next generation as literal literacy”.

Unlike a normal movie screening, this film will only be possible if the minimum ticket threshold is met by February 11, 2016 at 5:00PM.

Tickets can be purchased at www.penascolacodes.com . Additional contributions are accepted and benefit the Pensacola MESS Hall and the Junior League of Pensacola.

This event is made possible by Tugg.com, a platform that helps individuals and organizations to host screenings in their local theaters.

About the Film:

Tech jobs are growing three times faster than our colleges are producing computer science graduates. By 2020, there will be one million unfilled software engineering jobs in the USA. Through compelling interviews, artistic animation and clever flashpoints in popular culture, CODE documentary examines the reasons why more girls and people of color are not seeking opportunities in computer science and explores how cultural mindsets, stereotypes, educational hurdles and sexism all play roles in this national crisis. Expert voices from the worlds of tech, psychology, science, and education are intercut with inspiring stories of women who are engaged in the fight to challenge complacency in the tech industry and have their voices heard. CODE aims to inspire change in mindsets, in the educational system, in startup culture and in the way women see themselves in the field of coding.

Statement from the Director:

“Early one morning in the spring of 2013, my daughter called home from college announcing she intended to drop her computer science major. “I’m really bad at it,” she says. “I’m the worst in the class; I don’t fit in.”

Her confidence was shaken by being one of just two women in a class of 25, and by not having the resources to support her. After taking 3 computer science classes, she drops the major. Turns out she was earning a B.

That same spring, weekly headlines in national newspapers declared the importance of attaining some level of computer science knowledge in college. Want a job out of college? Study computer science. A White House study stated that by 2020 there would be 1 million unfilled computer science jobs in the USA.

What is going on here? With tech jobs plentiful and lucrative, why is the supply / demand ratio so skewed? Well, the tech industry is missing half the population.”

About the Filmmakers:
Director / Producer: Robin Hauser Reynolds
Producer: Staci Hartman
Editor / Producer: Christie Herring
Executive Producers: Helen Bradley & Steve Kleiman, Bradley Feld & Amy Batchelor, Hitz Family Foundation, Blake Irving, Amy Rao, Regina K. Scully, Nathalie Steinmetz & Britt Griffith, Kristen Timken

More information about the film can be found at http://www.codedoc.co/

Film stills and images are available at http://www.codedoc.co/press-kit/

CONTACT:
Ann Novakowski
(202) 809-8985
[email protected]