The Power of Women

a documentary by Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion in co-production with Films of Record, JWT, BBC and WDR

in cooperation with ARTE

Over the past few decades, life for women across the globe has changed beyond all recognition. From the highest echelons of society, to the lowest rungs of the global ladder, a quiet revolution has been taking place right before our eyes. Convincing female role models talk about their experiences: the head of IMF Christine Lagarde, the Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko or Haifaa Al Mansour, the first woman to direct a film in Saudi Arabia.

The Power of Women

a documentary by Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion in co-production with Films of Record, JWT, BBC and WDR

in cooperation with ARTE

Over the past few decades, life for women across the globe has changed beyond all recognition. From the highest echelons of society, to the lowest rungs of the global ladder, a quiet revolution has been taking place right before our eyes. Convincing female role models talk about their experiences: the head of IMF Christine Lagarde, the Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko or Haifaa Al Mansour, the first woman to direct a film in Saudi Arabia.
Slowly but surely, the traditional, restrictive female roles of wife, mother and homemaker are being blown wide open and, in many cases, entirely cast aside. Whether they aspire to be a businessperson, a soldier, an athlete – or simply gain a basic education and marry someone they love – women, the world over, now have opportunities denied to their foremothers for millennia.

Overall women account for 58% of graduates within OECD member states in 2009
. 40% of US families now have a female primary earner. Since 1975 the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women worldwide has almost doubled.

Nevertheless, twenty years since Hillary Clinton’s famous UN statement – “women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights, once and for all” – progress is still necessary. Sexual violence, restrictive marriage laws, lack of reproductive rights, unequal pay and education, and oppressive religious practices, all still seek to subject women to second sex status. But where this oppression was once largely legitimised, women today are challenging the traditional power structures and fighting for equality more than ever before, and they refuse to be ignored.

What is exciting is the global synchronicity of the moment. We may be witnessing a time where equality takes wing on a massive scale. It is being buoyed along by globalisation and the accessibility of images of women to admire.

‘The Power of Women’ will have a genuine millennial feel, pregnant with possibility, told through the lives of women from every strata of society. There will be different focal topics within the film – unpicking and examining the defining experiences of our inspirational women. These stories will speak to each other, highlighting shared experiences and obstacles, and will represent a global conversation between influential women about gender equality.

We will try to ensure that we capture their lives in observational sequences so the viewer gets drawn into their experiences. This is not just about people telling us things. It is about using the platform of observational documentary to explore the informational (statistics, expert views etc) and also to reveal the emotional lives of our characters and the emotional truths within their experience. They are not so much profiles as short films in which our character plays a lead role.

The overriding experience will conjure the geographical swoop of movies like Babel as we see women living lives in very different places that have an astonishing congruence to the central argument of the tide turning.

Based on an original concept by:
Rachel Pashley

Directors:
James Rogan
Harriet Shawcross

Co-Authors German Version:
Ina Kessebohm
Ken Kirby

Director of Photography:
Charlie Laing

Additional Camera:
Sebastian Cort
Maxim Duncan
Tulik Galon
David Tong
Paul Williams
Wolfgang Tilse

Sound:
Shaon Luzon

Mixing:
Pierre Brand

Film Editors:
Janet McCaig Taylor
Safi Ferah
Esther Gimenez
Anna Ksiezopolska
Sheryl Sandler
Christoph Senn

Composer:
Nainita Desai

Narration: 
Judy Winter

Production Executive:
Jorge Bogalho – WDR
Nicholas Franklin – Films of Record
Stefanie Nowak – Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion

Production Manager:
Paul Birmingham

Consultants:
Lucy Barton
Emily Conway
Shereen Daver
Nicola Mitchell
Lucy Moody
Gemma Swinglehurst
Larissa Taciuk
Ngen Yap

With thanks to:
UNFPA Niger

Archive and Stills:
AP Archive
British Movietone
BBC Motion Gallery
Carlos Roberto Rivas
CCTV America
Clips and Footage
Critical Past
Getty Images
Holon Films
In The Name of the People – Frank Christopher & Alex Dressler
INA
ITN Source
Jaime Menjivar
Kitty Green
Knesset TV
Lithuanian Government Press Service
Lok Sabha TV
The Match Factory
Pond 5
Razor Films
Sony
SVT
TV2 Denmark
ARD-Archive

Assistant Producers:
Tricia Power
Amber Felix
Nicky Lessware
Gretha Viana
Celia Watson

Executive Producers:
Jaspar Shelbourne - JWT
Neil Grant – Films of Record
Reinhardt Beetz – Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion

Commissioning Editors:
Jutta Krug
Christiane Hinz

Koproduktion

Kooperation

  • The Power of Women

    Filmforum - Köln
    11 February 2016 at 7:00 pm

  • The Power of Women

    arte
    08 March 2016 at 8:15 pm

  • The Power of Women

    WDR
    09 March 2016 at 10:55 pm

  • The Power of Women

    arte
    10 March 2016 at 8:55 am

  • The Power of Women

    arte
    22 March 2016 at 9:00 am

  • The Power of Women

    Phoenix
    01 October 2016 at 10:30 pm

  • The Power of Women

    Phoenix
    07 October 2016 at 2:15 am

  • The Power Of Women

    3sat
    06 March 2017 at 10:25 pm

  • The Power of Women - Die Macht der Frauen

    HR
    15 June 2020 at 1:15 am