On May 10th, 2017, Refinery29 is partnering with director Tiffany Shlain at the Tiffany Shlain Institute to mobilize your community in the global fight for women's equality. Following screenings of her film, Shlain will engage audiences in a worldwide dialogue that combines events with activations and a 24-hour live conversation. Feeling inspired? Sign up here to join the 50/50 movement.

In the new Shatterbox Anthology film 50/50, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain embarks on a journey to document the true history of powerful women around the world.

The project began when Shlain became aware of an interesting statistic about the number of women who have been elected heads of state — 50, with 15 currently living.

We have built a narrative around the scarcity of women in positions of power. In this short film, Shlain suggests that we should change the conversation to one about abundance, so we can shift our thinking toward an equal society.

The film begins with the first female hominoid, treads through the egalitarian neolithic era, past the ancient age of literacy, and into the roots of the patriarchy: a world that values men on a higher level than women because of the need for physical strength in agriculture and military force.

Basically, with every powerful woman came a male successor who strived to erase her reign from history. 50/50 is a sweeping historical film that seeks to rectify that dynamic by examining the moments that could have lead us to true equality.

Just like her film, Shlain constantly seeks to explore characters in the face of change. In her AOL original series The Future Starts Here, she uses her cinematic essay-film style to examine emerging technologies through a human lens — asking what makes us comfortable or uncomfortable with each new development. The series was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2014. In her feature documentary Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, she explores the acceleration of connectedness in the age of the internet through her own personal experiences. The feature premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Shlain is clearly a master filmmaker who loves tackle how broad-ranging topics affect us on an individual level.

Refinery29 is thrilled to be showing this Shatterbox Anthology film. Enjoy 50/50 above or on Comcast Watchable.