Gaylene PRESTON
Korean Premiere
With unique access to high-ranking candidate Helen Clark, award-winning filmmaker Gaylene Preston casts a wry eye on proceedings as the United Nations turns itself inside-out choosing a new Secretary-General. Her cameras explore the cracks between the diplomats, the embedded press and feminist activists as they push for change while caught up in a power process as secretive and patriarchal as the selection of the Pope.
My Year with Helen is a documentary about Helen Clark, New Zealand's first female prime minister, its Labor party leader, and the head of the UN Development Program. She challenges the first woman UN Secretary General. There has been an international public opinion surrounding electing the new UN Secretary-General that woman Secretary General should be elected at that time. The strongest candidate was Helen Clark. I expected that a competent woman General-Secretary would be born, but her challenge was frustrated. It is important to note that people like Helen, who are recognized for the outstanding ability and hard to find any reasons for disqualification as the position, are frustrated. The film reveals there are still tasks related with gender equality in the UN. I would like to recommend the film to young people. For young women, I want to tell them that the frustration of this inequality is not "their fault." And I think that the young men must learn that the women, men and the weakest in our society must work together to break the cliff in front of them.
Gaylene PRESTON
Strongman: The Tragedy (2012)
War Stories (1995)
New Zealand Film Commission 64 43 82 76 80 / sarap@nzfilm.co.nz