Olympia's influence on Rock documented in this movie:

Shadow Distribution is proud to present the US theatrical release of "Girls Rock!" a film by Shane King and Arne Johnson. "Girls Rock!" had its theatrical release in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland, OR, Chicago on March 7, 2008, and is now rolling out throughout the country.

"The first time I saw the students at the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls kicking out the jams on their guitars and drums," says "Girls Rock!" co-director Arne Johnson, "I giggled happily...and then was inexplicably moved to tears."

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It was this emotional reaction that launched him and co-director Shane King on a journey to document the transformation girls go through while learning music and writing their first song. 8-18 year olds come from all over the country to learn Rock DIY-style at the camp--forming bands, writing songs and building community. Traveling from Oklahoma to the ultra-urban Bay Area, King and Johnson have met girls from all walks of life and asked them about their dreams, thoughts about being a girl in this society, and their excitement about rock 'n' roll.

The primary subjects of "Girls Rock!" are Laura, an articulate adopted Korean girl from Oklahoma obsessed with death metal; Misty, who is emerging from a life of meth-addiction, homelessness and gang activity; Palace, a sweet-seeming 8-year-old with a heavy metal sneer and "rawk" heart, and Amelia, another 8-year-old, who's writing a 14 song cycle about her Chihuahua Pippi and loves "crazy noise music." Forming bands, writing songs and playing a gig in one week, these girls and the rest of the campers engage in an experiment meant to change their perception of themselves and each other.

In meeting these four children, the filmmakers discovered what many books and studies have already described—girls are struggling with a bewildering and heartbreaking array of challenges to their self-image. Everything from eating disorders to drugs to sexual harassment have made girlhood a virtual battlefield. The filmmakers were happy to find in the camp a place where, in the words of former Camp Assistant Director Jen Agosta, "it is 100% ok to be exactly who you are." What happens to the girls as they are given a temporary reprieve from being sexualized, analyzed and pressured to conform, is truly exhilarating. The act of picking up a guitar and making noise becomes a truly revolutionary act.