The Bring in the Girls Initiative Releases Four Incredible Films
The Bring in the Girls (B.I.G) Initiative has released four new films unlike anything that has come before them. These films are beyond belief
Geneviève de la Plante has worked in climbing for over a decade. She co-owns a number of gyms across the country, with a home and family in Montreal. In 2019, she would Bring in the Girls through the nationally renowned B.I.G Initiative. 2020 made their second year.
Although the initiative quickly became popular, it also faced the same difficulties many organizations tackled over the length of the pandemic. This non-profit operates on a national scale, and with only four founding members, reaching Canada’s corners mid-pandemic became difficult.
With only a few brief travelling windows last year, setting up instances for interviews provided many challenges. Still, after a lot of hard work, they have done it. This film series has become B.I.G’s latest project following their inaugural year’s six-stop workshop that took place across the country.
The equity-focused initiative has released a series of short films that feature some of the most relatable climbing stories. While the original climbing narrative often promotes difficulty and danger, the Initiative has decided to move away from the status quo to promote the less told stories of climbers just like us.
Although climbing 14c, or 15c, or V16 is inspiring, many do not climb for the sake of difficulty. Many do not expect to see themselves in these stories. To that effect, visibility in climbing has generally associated itself with a single demographic.
De la Plante wanted to tackle this problem for women. The non-binary inclusive initiative became the first of its kind and began with routesetting where the problem was most obvious. In conversation with her brother, de la Plante came to the conclusion that deliberate efforts would be needed if the industry was to reach gender parity in routesetting.
The de la Plante siblings began to discuss the possibility of a talent detection workshop or maybe a setter training program. The problem became the scope of their approach. The small pool of female setters made it difficult for any gym to maintain parity at all times. De la Plante looked into the future and saw that only large-scale change could solve the problem of female representation in the climbing industry’s positions.
To fortify her initiative, de la Plante would need a team. Joined by legal and marketing advisor Sophie Claivaz-Loranger, IT specialist Léa Chin, and Director Alexa Fay, de la Plante began the first mission of the newly formed B.I.G Initiative.
Trendsetting routesetters made for the perfect start to this industry-wide mission. Between the six separate workshops, de la Plante and her team would put drills in the hands of women. It was more than a call to action. Instead, it became a transfer of hard skills.
While a two-day workshop does not make a setter, it does a lot to lower the barrier to entry. De la Plante related that the women that took their workshops felt encouraged to apply for setting jobs or have a greater voice in their community. Some now work as routesetters. While these workshops made a measurable difference, they were still limited: a first step.
De la Plante wondered at how climbing could encourage women to become setters. “I think that sometimes we misdiagnose why women aren’t joining setting teams or why they’re not applying.”
Ultimately, it boils down to a single thought. People hire people they relate to. Male routesetters see themselves in other male routesetters or other men that desire that position. Furthermore, women do not see themselves in routesetting positions, which, in turn, discourages them from applying.
If we can accept this truth, it is easier to look upon the future. The question then becomes one of education and visibility. How can we see more women in the sport? While offering more qualified female routesetters makes a beginning, the Initiative’s recent film series sought to describe the many stories of women in climbing.
They exist, they crush, and they each interact with climbing in unique ways. B.I.G founding member and Director Alexa Fay believes these relatable stories significant because of their relative accessibility.
Fay made it her goal to reach those with stories unique from one another. While each tells a different tale, they all manage to access something that any climber, of any gender, might relate to. In partnership with the North Face, B.I.G would launch their film series.
Between pre-interviews, one-on-one collaborations, filmed interviews, relationship building, and editing, B.I.G would produce an exciting new series that differentiated itself from the climbing films that came before it. While female-focused climbing movies have made it to the screen in the past, they have focused on performance when climbing offers more than physical progression.
This avant-garde approach to climbing took the Initiative’s subjects by surprise. According to Fay, they each responded in the same sort of way: “Why me?” Each found it difficult to believe that their approach to climbing would make for an interesting subject.
Fay would argue that this made them special. “There’s value in showcasing the different types of people that are actually part of the climbing community.”
Each story relates to one of the less discussed, though ever-real parts of climbing. Whether the climber loves their sport through parent-hood or adventure or that which falls between, these stories represent women in climbing. These stories represent people in climbing.
The importance of this last detail is difficult to overstate. Ask a climber why they originally wanted to join the sport and the answer will describe climbing’s community. The men and women of climbing make for incredible stories, whether they climb professionally or otherwise.
Furthermore, their stories captivate psyched climbers, new and old alike. While B.I.G does exist for the promotion of women, both Fay and de la Plante mentioned that it’s not an exclusion of men.
As the only man on the production, cinematographer Simon Dufour related that men need to become an active part of this mission. “We all have the same goal.”
Between routesetting and the industry and general visibility, there remain those that wonder why climbing should actively make space for women. De la Plante responds in relation to routesetting. “There is a big difference between hiring a person because they are a woman and making sure that there are spots on your team for qualified female routesetters. People think they are the same thing, but they are not.”
When a setting team offers a variety of perspectives, like those imported from varied backgrounds, there exists a greater richness to the product. While this makes itself most obvious in routesetting, the concept applies broadly.
Although B.I.G’s efforts from these last months wrapped up at the end of March, there remain two more films that should find their release date over the summer.
There remains a lot of work to do before the Initiative reaches any sort of conclusion, but for the moment, this Canadian organization continues to support and document climbing’s developing community.
Check out the B.I.G Initiative here.
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