26-01-2025
Sundance: Jacinda Ardern On Her Docu ‘Prime Minister;' Feminism, Semi-Automatic Weapons Ban, Covid Border Closing And Women's Rights Including Abortion In Kiwi Country
Rarely does a political leader come through a documentary with such a sense of empathy and an appreciation of accomplishment as Jacinda Ardern does in Prime Minister. The Sundance documentary starts as a homespun tale, where at 37 she steps up to run New Zealand, and soon learns that she and her mate Clark Gayford are pregnant with their first child. The press narrative over whether a new mother can run the land of the Kiwis soon gives way as the movie becomes like a documentary version of 24, where Ardern is suddenly championing a ban of semi-automatic weapons after a devastating massacre, decriminalizing abortion and handling the Covid outbreak by leaning into the saving of lives more than the re-starting of the economy. She then walked away and is now a climate rights activist whose first major book A Different Kind Of Power is coming, and who among other things is a Senior Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard. The docu is for sale, and was backed by Madison Wells' Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane, who add this to a roster of films that often touch on female empowerment themes, including The Eyes of Tammy from Deadline
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GIGI PRITZKER: From our perspective, we were lucky recipients of the opportunity to do the film. Having never done a doc through Madison Wells before, Rachel and I immediately said, if we're ever going to do something, this is the thing. We were beside ourselves and then once we got more engaged, we realized that the biggest gift was that Clark Gayford, her husband and a broadcaster, picked up a camera almost as if you were going to just do home movies, as you said. The result was a treasure trove of ARDERN: It's a great question. The first thing that prompted the idea of keeping a record of a time in office, I'm not the first politician to do that, but many politicians will do it through notes. We have in New Zealand something called the Oral History Project, and it's been running for decades where on a semi-regular basis, someone will call you and just record an audio interview with you. I'd already been doing that. Part it was just I wanted to keep a record for myself, for my family. I appreciate and love history, and perhaps my history teacher was ringing in my ears when I thought about just keeping a visual record. But you can see that often I was a reluctant I think that is fair, though it probably built on an existing passion that I had. One of the reasons I got into politics was, as a child I spent a few years living in a town where there was a lot of inequality and poverty, and I eventually associated politics as the place to make change. There's something about thinking about the world through the lens of a child, and certainly having a child and then thinking about what kind of legacy are we going to leave her, it amplified all of the passions that I already had. But she's been a motivator for so many things. She was one of the reasons Clark wanted to keep a record, because it was her story as Yeah, I mean, I wonder whether or not the reason that I often took it in stride was because I was aware that I was in an unusual set of circumstances. And that wasn't to say it justified the assumption that you couldn't do both, but I could understand why I was being asked the question. I didn't always like it. But I could understand when you're only the second leader in the world to have a baby, in office. So rather than being defensive, I just took on the perspective that I just needed to get out and do the job. That was only really the way, and I would not be the first woman who's had to multitask and face those questions or try and hide that there's any impact from caregiving on the work that I do. I am not be the first woman who's experienced that. It was just very, it was Do you know what I appreciated that we were just discussing? The depth of the applause for Clark at the premiere. I think that was acknowledgement not only of the origin of the story, but the role that he played as well. When you are in public office, there's not always a lot of light shone on the people who are supporting you, in the village that's around you. I think we should do more of that, because I didn't do the job alone and I didn't raise my daughter on my own. And so it was great to give an insight to him as well.
PRITZKER: I think that's also one of the fallacies that we as a society give to women, which is you can do it all. But you don't do it all alone. No, that's a crazy conceit. Not only were you stepping out as a woman, but that you had this other element that was so universal, not only to women, but to Gosh, they were all hard. But abortion law reform, that was a conscience vote in New Zealand. We have an incredible system, where you vote on certain issues. You don't have to vote on a party line. You vote according to your conscience. And I think the incredible thing about that system, it means that if you have a particular religious perspective or persuasion, or if you happen to be a liberal, but in an otherwise conservative party, you're able to express that. And so abortion law reform, actually, that was about bringing individuals on board and the timing for that was, the New Zealand parliament was ready for that change as it should be.
So that was about building consensus and shepherding a piece of law through the other challenges. Those others are the unexpected crises that you sometimes face in leadership. And I wouldn't want to give one more weight over the other because each was devastating in their own ways. I will always carry so many lessons from March 15, most of whom came from New Zealand itself, and the Muslim community. Covid was a global experience, and it was difficult for everyone. New Zealand's experience just happened to be unique in some ways, but it was still hard, particularly the I can only speak to the New Zealand experience because I only really know its history and culture in any depth. And what I can tell you is that in the aftermath of March 15, that there was a public appetite, maybe expectation is a better word, that as politicians, we reflect how New Zealanders felt. And that's why ultimately I believe, and yes, we did move quickly. I'm not going to diminish that. We did move very quickly, but that is why I believe you had a parliament where all but one…so 119 members of parliament all voted in favor of that change because they were reflecting their Well, I mean, one thing I would say is that our political system there is very different. We have something called MMP [Mixed Member Proportional]. It means that we often have multiple parties in government. It means that there's a diversity of views, and it means that you have to can't govern without working with others. And so it's a different system. Mike, you know your system better than I, I'm an observer, but I know that our system is one that I think, no system is perfect, but it is one that really does reflect voters. And maybe it's one of the reasons we have such high turnout, in the 80% mark of New Zealanders enrolled, out voting. Perhaps it's because they know that that vote counts. But again, I'm only speaking to New Zealand It is, yeah. Just as a sidebar, there's some discussion over exemptions and things, but for the most part, that's in Well, I hope you saw in the film that thought process. I think that was one of the goals of the film, from the storytellers' perspective, to just provide an insight into leadership, into decision I hope that the viewer sees that it is just decision making in real time. Often, you see the decision, you don't often see the choices. So I think that's what the film tries to do. It provides the context. You see the choices that are I think it's human nature to always reflect on that, particularly if it's something as significant as leading a country. Though when I left, I remember saying this, and I can't remember if I said it in my departing speech or not, but all of the things that brought me into politics are never things that are going to have necessarily a nice tidy endpoint. I came in because I believed in equality and reducing inequality. I believed in addressing child poverty. I believed in the preservation of our environment and addressing climate change, and they just don't have tidy end points. So the time I was in office, I felt was about trying to make as much progress as I could rather than just job done.
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