Redefining What It Means to Age: The Tough Old Broads Impact Campaign
Too often, conversations around aging focus on decline, invisibility, or limitation. Tough Old Broads pushes back against all three.
The documentary celebrates three older women who have spent their lives leading, challenging systems, and redefining what aging can look like: Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon and founder of global non-profit 261 Fearless; Siila Watt-Cloutier, Nobel Prize-nominated Inuit advocate whose groundbreaking work connected climate change to human rights; and Sharon Farmer, the first woman and first person of colour to serve as Chief Official White House Photographer.
The film’s impact campaign set out to bring that spirit into our communities, creating spaces for intergenerational dialogue around activism, representation, and aging.
Our Partners in Impact
Partnerships were a crucial part of the Tough Old Broads impact campaign. We connected with organizations working across women's rights, aging, active living, and social justice — a network that made it possible to bring the film to audiences beyond the traditional theatrical circuit.
Our impact partners included:
- 261 Fearless
- Active Aging Canada
- Avon
- The Female Lead
- Impossible2Possible
- The National Women's Hall of Fame
- SustainabilityX
- THIRD ACTion Film Festival
These partnerships were essential to the campaign’s reach. Organizations participated in every stage of the rollout: hosting screenings, moderating panels, contributing speakers, promoting events to their communities, and helping bring conversations about aging and activism to more audiences. Kathrine, Siila, Sharon, and director Stacey Tenenbaum played an active role in the campaign, joining select screenings and Q&As to expand on the personal stories behind the film.
The Tough Old Broads Among Us
The campaign hosted theatrical screenings and panel events in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary. The Calgary and Vancouver screenings sold out quickly, with additional dates added.
In each city, our focus was to spotlight local “Tough Old Broads”—older women in the community who embodied the resilience of the women on the screen. Our panels brought together a diverse group of activists, educators, community leaders, and founders, with conversations that spanned aging, gender, climate justice, and representation. These panellists were a reminder that stories of inspiration and activism exist everywhere among us.
Beyond the Theatre
The theatrical events were accompanied by a broader series of community screenings at universities, senior living facilities, and aging research centres.
In total, eight community events were held nationwide, including screenings and panels hosted by University of British Columbia, Mount Royal University, University of Calgary, and McGill University, as well as community venues in Hamilton and Clarenceville, Quebec.
Turning Impact Into Action
One of the campaign’s more ambitious engagement initiatives invited audiences to record and submit short selfie videos sharing their own “Tough Old Broads” stories—stories of leadership and persistence across generations.
Fourteen videos were submitted across Canada and beyond, including children sharing stories about influential women in their own families and communities. A video shared by Lisa LaFlamme gained significant traction online, reaching more than 242,000 views on TikTok!
More than anything, the campaign demonstrated how personal storytelling can spark wider community connection. By encouraging panellists and audiences to share their own experiences, Tough Old Broads turned individual stories into a collective conversation about what it means to live boldly at every age.
