The 50th Cleveland International Film Festival just opened and it is already buzzing around "Tough Old Broads," a documentary that celebrates three remarkable women who carved out space and broke barriers in fields where they were never expected to belong. The screenings are sold out—but filmmaker Stacey Tenenbaum is holding onto two tickets, offering them to someone willing to step into that same spirit and share why they, too, identify with the film’s message.

Tough Old Broads will be featured during CIFF50 at the Cedar Lee Theatre.Tenenbaum, based in Montreal, spent six years developing the project, driven by a desire to learn from women who succeeded when the odds were stacked against them. “Tough Old Broads” follows Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon; Sharon Farmer, the first woman to be hired as Chief White House photographer and the first woman to be named director of the White House photography office; and Siila Watt-Cloutier, an advocate for the rights of the Inuit of the Arctic and the first woman to connect climate change to human rights.

"I really want to learn from these ladies,” says Tenenbaum of her inspiration. “How were they able to do that? What was it about them that allowed them to sort of break into these men's worlds?"

The documentary's genesis came unexpectedly, while Tenenbaum was watching another film. "I was actually watching another documentary about street photography in New York and one of the people featured in that documentary was Jill Freedman, who is just this unbelievable woman who did some really neat stuff in the seventies in New York City," she recalls. "I just said ‘tough old broad’ as I was watching her and I was like, ‘wow, that's a great name for a film.’"

Switzer, Farmer, and Watt-Cloutier each have unique and inspirational stories, which Tenenbaum explores in “Tough Old Broads.”

Running the long race
Switzer is the first woman profiled who made history at the Boston Marathon. "She was the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon,” explains Tenenbaum. “There's a very famous photo of her actually getting pushed out of the race because women weren't [allowed]. Now, it's normal to see women running marathons. But at that time, it was really quite shocking, and she was physically accosted for wanting to run."

Switzer went on to transform women's participation in marathon running entirely.

Breaking barriers in the White House
Farmer’s achievements span both Civil Rights and presidential history.

"She is a lifelong Civil Rights activist, and she was the first woman and the first person of color to be the chief official White House photographer, which was quite extraordinary,” says Tenenbaum. “She served during the Clinton administration and was in the room for a lot of history being made. She really worked to change things on campus in the 70s when the Civil Rights movement was coming up for people of color at Ohio State University."

A climate justice pioneer
Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s work connected climate change with human rights for the first time. After having a traditional Inuit childhood until age 10, Watt-Cloutier was sent away to a family in Nova Scotia and to a residential setting in Manitoba.

"She grew up on the land,” says Tenenbaum. “The whole image that you have of Canada—dog sleds and living on the land—that was her. That was her life until she was sent south to go to school and ripped out of her community and lost her language."

'Tough Old Broads' director Stacey TenenbaumLater on, as an educational administrator working for the Kativik School Board, Watt-Cloutier worked to improve educational standards of Inuit students and worked on solving alcohol and drug addiction afflicting the Inuit student population.

Her groundbreaking activism led to international recognition. "She actually was the first person to frame climate change as a human rights issue,” says Tenenbaum. “She actually started an international petition against the U.S. for their role in climate change. She said [climate change] was endangering the lives of the Inuit people, which was true. It was kind of a landmark case."

Watt-Cloutier was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for her work linking climate change to human rights. She collaborated with climate activist Al Gore, argued that greenhouse gases violate Inuit rights to culture and survival, and won the 2015 Right Livelihood Award for her work.

Words and persistence
The “Tough Old Broads” title represents more than just a catchy phrase—it's about reclaiming words that have been used to diminish women. "There's a lot of stigmas around ‘old’ still, and I don't think there should be,” Tenenbaum says. “Old is wisdom. Old is a lot of things. It's what we make it.”

Sharon FarmerShe says the same consideration should be given to defining a woman as a “broad.”

“For a long time, ‘broad’ was a word that men used to describe women who took up too much space and were sassy and talked back,” Tenenbaum explains. “That was supposed to be bad, but I'm trying to show that being a broad can be a really good thing."

Switzer, Farmer, and Watt-Cloutier are united in the film through their unwavering commitment to their causes.

"Each of them is an activist and has been an activist for 20, 30, 40 years and they've sort of single mindedly just done that thing,” marvels Tenenbaum. “Sometimes that's what it takes. Activism takes many forms, but I think the most important thing is persistence. It’s just keeping at it, and that's what these women really show—that you have to be persistent if you want to see some kind of positive change happen in the world."

Special guests and free tickets
Tenenbaum, Farmer and Watt-Cloutier will be at the Tuesday, April 14 screening of “Tough Old Broads.” Both the screening at Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights on April 14 and in the CSU Screening Room at Playhouse Square are sold out. Information on CIFF Streams: Best of CIFF50 has not yet been released.

Despite the sold-out status, Tenenbaum is offering two free tickets to the April 14 screening at 12 p.m.

Kathrine Switzer

If you share the Tough Old Broad mindset and want the tickets, make a short video about why you’re a tough old (or aspiring) broad or aspire to become one. You can also record a shout out to a tough broad who has inspired you. If you’re a male ally, explain what you are doing to uplift women. Upload your video to your own social media page and tag @tougholdbroads in your post. Or upload your video to the Tough Old Broads movement site.

The contest ends Tuesday, April 14 at 9 a.m.

The contest ties into a larger movement that Tenenbaum says she hopes to create.

"We're really asking women of all ages to do these videos and to share them with us and on social media and tag @tougholdbroads so that we can get more and more of these videos going and uplift more and more women's voices,” she says.

Participants can either celebrate themselves or honor another woman in their lives. "I'm trying to create a movement where women do selfie videos talking about why they're tough old broads,” says Tenenbaum, “or uplifting a woman in their life [who] is a tough old broad."