The Beyond Seneca Falls Project

About the Project

Seneca Falls chronicles the life-changing journey of nine diverse high school girls (and a lone ten-year-old boy) bound for the birthplace of women's rights in America. Part teenage road trip, part shocking history lesson, the film is, above all, an awakening of young hearts and minds. Focusing on modern-day teenage girls, the film breathes life and relevance into a revolutionary act barely mentioned in history books: America's first women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. In the film, a struggling multicultural teen theater troupe travels from San Francisco to Seneca Falls to perform their original play at the 150th Anniversary Celebration of this groundbreaking, yet largely forgotten, moment in American history.

Leveraging the worldwide web with the Beyond web portal, the opportunities for cross-cultural exchange are boundless. In the western world, there is a core belief that being strong is somehow the antithesis of being feminine. What do other cultures think? How do they treat females? How can less developed nations and more developed nations inform each other's struggles, and assist in meeting each other's challenges? The Beyond project asks people to think BEYOND current limitations, asking ordinary citizens to help shape more gender-balanced, fair, and free societies.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to have funded the Beyond Seneca Falls Web Portal, which gives the film's audience a safe place to go next - a forum to address remaining inequities in today's world on a peer-to-peer social networking site. Beyond is an oasis of encouragement, inspiration, and ideas for girls and women inclined toward action and leadership.