Deborah Riley Draper

Sabaah Folayan

Megan Goedewaagen

Emily Best

Most Americans believe the Constitution protects gender equality. It does not. RATIFY follows 3 brave women who unexpectedly accept the reins to carry forward a 100-year struggle to build a more inclusive movement and finally enshrine gender equality in the Constitution.

Bronze Lens Film Festival

Deborah Riley Draper is a writer, director and award-winning filmmaker.  Deborah is currently directing the A&E docu-series JAMES BROWN: SAY IT LOUD, produced by Academy Award winner Ahmir Thompson and Mick Jagger. In 2021, Deborah wrote and directed two projects about seminal moments in history. Her docu-series, The Legacy of Black Wall Street on OWN/Discovery+, told the story of the pioneering community of Greenwood, airing 100 years to the day of the brutal massacre. This project earned Deborah a 2022 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Breakthrough Creative -Television, her 3rd nomination. Deborah's Twenty Pearls, the first original documentary to be acquired by Comcast's Black Experience Channel, features Vice-President Kamala Harris and chronicles the rarely recognized history of America's first black sorority.
Please send all connection requests to Emily via ratifythefilm@gmail.com

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform built to make entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. She has raised millions in investment and crowdfunding, secured large brand partnerships, and built a world-class team for Seed&Spark. In addition to her work at Seed&Spark, she has produced films, series and VR projects that have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and more. Her most recent film is RATIFIED, a feature documentary about the 100-year struggle to enshrine gender equality in the US Constitution, coming out late summer 2024. Alongside Christie Marchese at Kinema, Emily spearheaded an effort to launch The Distribution Playbook, a totally free and open- sourced field guide for independent filmmakers to succeed in distribution. Emily has taught crowdfunding, pitching and creative sustainability in more than 100 cities around the world.
Please send all connection requests to Emily via ratifythefilm@gmail.com

Kati Hornung currently leads VoteEquality, a non-partisan, grassroots effort promoting equal rights for all Americans. Kati described herself as “just a mom,” and joined the movement at the behest of her son Kal, who in 2017, at 11 years old was incensed to learn the Equal Rights Amendment was not part of the U.S. Constitution. Kati decided to follow her kids' interest and got involved in the movement so they could see more about the inner workings of government. Later, she was asked to lead Virginia’s largest grassroots effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She and the VAratifyERA team toured around the state of Virginia, organized letter-writing campaigns, convinced many localities to pass resolutions of support, engaged voters, and so much more. 

Please send all speaking requests to Emily at ratifythefilm@gmail.com
