At first blush, Mimi Oo's organization might not seem like an obvious choice to promote a new movie about a long-standing campaign to amend the U.S. Constitution.
Oo leads the nonprofit New Americans Alliance for Development, which supports female professionals, primarily physicians like herself, unable to resume their careers after immigrating to the United States because of education and licensing hurdles.
"Equal Means Equal," the documentary the nonprofit is screening at St. Anthony Main Theatre in Minneapolis, has drawn backing from Hollywood celebrities as it makes a renewed case for codifying gender equality in the Constitution.
But Oo says she was thrilled to get tapped to host the sold-out Friday screening and panel discussion ahead of the movie's Sept. 6 premiere. Many of the issues the film tackles — from wage gaps to domestic abuse — affect women in some immigrant communities disproportionately.
"We are very fortunate to make people aware of these inequalities," Oo said.
The event is among screenings in New York, Atlanta and elsewhere on Women's Equality Day. They are part of a campaign led by the movie's director, Kamala Lopez, and Academy Award-winning actress Patricia Arquette. Arquette coproduced the film and launched a signature drive in support of an Equal Rights Amendment, which activists have promoted unsuccessfully since the 1920s.
The campaign won the support of Reese Witherspoon, Gillian Anderson and other actresses.
Oo, who moved to the United States from Myanmar, formerly Burma, doesn't have celebrity connections. But she has a family link to Lopez: Lopez's grandfather married Oo's aunt.
