SARASOTA (WSNN) – A student film from the Ringling College of Art and Design gets national recognition.
‘Code Red,’ is a whimsical coming-of-age short film meant to raise awareness about period poverty, which is the lack of access to menstrual products many young women face in school.
“It’s a public health crisis that doesn’t get a lot of attention because of the taboos and the stigmas that surround the topic,” ‘Code Red’ Executive Producer Vivian Owen said.
The film, ‘Code Red’ is about a young girl who goes on a quest to find a menstrual pad and avoid the shame of the stain.
Out of 25,000 entries in a national competition, ‘Code Red’ was honored with a National ADDY Award from the American Advertising Federation in early June.
“The ADDY Awards are the advertising’s industry largest and most representative awards competition,” Owen said.
Leading up to the Nationals, Code Red won two Student GOLD ADDY Awards, plus Student BEST IN SHOW at the District 4 ADDY Awards.
“It’s a three-tiered competition and the judging at each level just gets harder and harder and harder,” Owen said. “So to make it through all three rounds to the national competition is extremely tough.”
Jada Poon is the writer and director. Graduating from the film program at Ringling College in 2020, Poon had to overcome the obstacles of COVID. But, with dedication and perseverance, she returned to campus post-graduation to finish what she started.
“I feel like it’s a great recognition of the effort the whole team has put together like from the cast and crew,” Poon said. “We got hit by the COVID pandemic and having to pull everything together after the obstacles we had to face and being recognized was a great feeling.”
Poon says the frustration of her period inspired her to write the film. She found her flow after having writer’s block.
“I wanted everyone else to understand and feel what’s it like and therefore out of my own hate of bleeding so much, I just started writing a script,” Poon said.
Now, thousands of people are learning about period poverty as ‘Code Red’ is screening in film festivals across the globe from Italy to Canada to South Korea.
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‘Code Red’ is screening in the film festivals below:
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“Make it so that saying that you’re on your period is something we can say out loud, that we don’t have to whisper or talk in hush tones about it,” Owen said. “We can talk about it normally, we can talk about the pains and problems that come with it.”
With this recognition, Poon is able to kick start her career. She hopes to write more comedic pieces. She is currently working on a mockumentary based on her culture.