'Prime Minister' Directors Talk Promoting a Documentary During Trump Times

Filmmakers Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz show "natural born" leadership of New Zealand politician Jacinda Arden

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Living in California this week has been equal parts frightening and infuriating, the perfect time to watch a documentary about a competent female leader helping her country navigate uncertainty! But, really, Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz’s documentary Prime Minister is certainly a movie that people need right now. It’s sensitive and uncompromising portrait of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Arden says so much about what leadership, whether male or female, looks like. The documentary explores Arden’s election, the disclosure of her pregnancy after being elected—making her one of the few women to give birth in office. Most people in the U.S. know Arden for her total shutdown and isolation of New Zealand in the wake of COVID, which allowed the country to have some brief respites where life was returned to normal. But the rise of variants, coupled with right-wing pushback, eventually saw Arden resign due to widespread threats and criticisms of her governance.