In 2020, Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, traveled to Sundance and Berlin Fests to promote the Hulu docuseries about her career.
However, this year Clinton arrived at the Toronto Film Fest with her daughter Chelsea as executive producers. In 2021, the pair had launched the new film and TV company HiddenLight Productions.
Co-founded with British producer Sam Branson, the Clintons’ company differs from Higher Ground — the production outfit launched by Barack and Michelle Obama — in that they have no exclusive studio deals akin to Higher Grounds’ first-look with Netflix. Instead, they are exploring wide array of opportunities, including partnering on acquisitions from festivals.
While they remain focused on non-fiction projects, the Clintons haven’t ruled out narratives. The Obamas recently made a break from their own documentary projects to produce an adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel “Exit West.”
There has been skepticism in the industry about the recent content development efforts by high-profile public figures whose background isn’t producing, from the Obamas to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archwell, but the early output from the Clintons seems to lean into their brand.
Though Hillary struggled to find an endpoint to the Afghanistan war during her time in the Obama administration, she spent a lot of time in the country and was drawn to story of mayor Ghafari, then 26.
“It’s a compelling but sometimes difficult-to-watch story,” she said. “I had the great privilege and challenge when I was Secretary of State to travel to Afghanistan numerous times, and I fell in love with the people in that country, particularly the women and girls who were able to go to school and practice their professions — and as in Zarifa’s case, enter politics and government, make their contributions as the active and involved citizens that they were.”
I learned how much goes into a production,” Clinton said when asked what she learned. “I’m used to just walking on the set, sitting down, getting interviewed, and then leaving. We were there from putting up the lights and getting the camera angles and all that went into producing our interviews, and then the entire docuseries.”
Many of the subjects featured in “Gutsy” shared personal stories. It isn’t always easy to get people to open up, let alone with so many lights, cameras, microphones and crew members around, but Secretary Clinton and Chelsea went into their sit-down interviews with “intense interest” in speaking to the women.
