WOMEN WHO DARED ... THE PROPOSAL

P R O P O S A L

 

Each one hour film and accompanying book recalls the woman's personal saga and how she inherited those leadership qualities from childhood to maturity. What were the motivating forces which developed her personality and led her to become "the elected leader in her country" and be addressed as "Madam President", or "Madam Prime Minister" ?

The reader will move across five continents, establishing colorful insights into traditional cultures, showing the influences of the world's major religions -- Christianity, Lutheran, Judaeism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism.  At the same time, the reader will note how these distinguished women, from very different religious, social, economical and political backgrounds shared certain unique qualities.

Each film and book is written in a highly dramatic "investigative" journalism style", with a collection of personal photographs, and focuses on the "very first time a woman was elected", starting from 1960, and the readers becomes aware of the striking comparisons and contrasts of the familiar historical figures like the present Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the late Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, Corzon Acquion and Golda Meir, etc., and learn about the other lesser-known women leaders.

Each leading character in the film and book is seen against the background of her time and the present day. Her life-story falls across major historical and global events most readers remember, coloring their  historical life stories in a way that gives them new meaning because the reader understand them better today.

THEME

The theme focus on discovering those "secret ingredients of leadership" and shows how each individual woman nurtured and developed significant personality traits of a leader, inherited from their grandmothers, mothers, fathers, and eventually from male mentors in their professions, lovers and husbands - men who themselves had strong-willed, out-spoken and possessive mothers.

Questions on what makes a leader are answered. Is a person born with qualities that make for leadership? Or is it achieved by sheer hard work? Bernard Shaw refused to admit there was any such thing as a great man or a great woman. To quote his words, "People believe in them, just as they used to believe in unicorns and dragons. The greatest man or woman is 99 per cent just like yourself". Shaw forgot that it is that one per cent which makes all the difference.

These films and book series (working title):  First-ever WOMEN PRESIDENTS & PRIME MINISTERS" presents intimate stories with relevant archival references and photographs, displaying seven exclusve chapters formating Shakespeare's seven stages of human growth: (i) childhood, (ii) girlhood, (iii) young adult, (iv) bride/ wife/mother or the single woman, (v) career woman/divorcee/widow, (vi) the career politician and finally, (vii) the President or Prime Minister - talking during her age of serenity - as the grandmother. Each woman's personal profile concludes with the oath-taking ceremony of "Madame President" or "Madame Prime Minister" in her respective country. The final chapter 8 will summarizes her failures and successes as a leader, referring to books and articles.

 

AUDIENCE

Although, exclusively designed for "global families and each coming younger generation, the key audiences will be the world's female and children population.  It will also include progressive decision-makers and politicians, professional lawyers, information technologists, bankers, doctors, chemists, schoolteachers, housewives, and every new younger generation for decades to come, etc. They will identify their own careers with the leading subjects: daughters, sisters, younglovers, housewives, chemists, medical doctors, lawyers, a judge, soldiers, university professors, school and music teachers, ballet and cabaret dancers, radio, film and TV actresses, language translators, etc.

CONCLUSION

Each woman leader belongs to a particular combination of time, place and circumstances.

The film and book will expose her personal goals, her visions, the causes that to her were supremely important and how she herself had to shape the events.

The films and books only briefly touch on the controversial realities of how women governed and are governing their countries today and making a difference and how they themselves differ. Readers will identify the stories with their own lives, while reading these intimate personal profiles. They will learn how each woman leader was able to formulate personality traits and unique characteristics that developed from childhood, youth to maturity - enabling global family lifestyles to make an impact.

Many of the First WOMEN LEADERS became household names -- women who completely reversed the world's view of the female's role in national and international politics. Others, may be less known outside their own countries, but they are nevertheless towering personalities who are making, or have made, a firm imprint in world history!

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"FIRST WOMEN LEADERS WHO DARED"

^{For the first time in history, we are producing a 13-part Book Series titled: "FIRST WOMEN LEADERS", representing the personal sagas and dramatizing the lives of 13 prominent women first-ever Heads of State (Presidents) and Heads of Government (Prime Ministers). The theme will focus on discovering the "secret ingredients" of how each woman inherited those motivating forces which developed her personality from childhood to maturity. Who were her mentors and all the people who inspired her to reach her goal as the primo polical leader.}

The format of the books will be composed of seven chapters adapted from Shakespeare's seven stages of human growth: (i) childhood (ii) girlhood (iii) young adult (iv) bride/wife/mother or the single woman; (v) career woman/divorcee/widow; (vi) the career politician: Madame President or Prime Minister (vii) the grandmother. Chronologically, listed below are the first 13 pioneering women who achieved the highest status of government in their respective countries:

Chronological

                                    Name of Leader

                                                                                 Country

1. (1960)

* Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister of SRI LANKA

2. (1967)

* Mrs. Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of INDIA

3. (1969)

* Mrs. Golda Mabovitch Meir Prime Minister of ISRAEL

4. (1974)

* Mrs. Isabelita de Peron President of ARGENINA

5. (1979)

* Mrs. Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister UNITED KINGDOM

6. (1979)

*Ms. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Prime Minister of PORTUGAL

7. (1980)

* Ms. Mary Eugenia Charles Prime Minister of DOMINICA

8. (1980)

* Mrs. Vigdis Finnbogadottir President of ICELAND

9. (1981)

* Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland Prime Minister of NORWAY

10. (1982)

Mrs. Milka Planinc Prime Minister of YUGOSLAVIA

11. (1986)

* Mrs. Corazon "Cory" Aquino President of the PHILIPPINES

12. (1988)

* Mrs. Benazir Bhutto Prime Minister of PAKISTAN

13. (1990)
* Mrs. Mary Robinson President of IRELAND

WOMEN WHO DARED (WWD)

                                         WOMEN WHO DARED ...
                             to become Presidents & Prime Ministers
                      First thirteen women Presidents & Prime Ministers

One of the universal cravings since the sixties, especially during the Womens' Liberation Movement, (which national media spread around the world started in America), there was always this hunger to learn the compelling and creative "secrets" of political leadership. Too little was known about "how and what it takes to become a leader," least of all, female leadership role models as Heads of State (Presidents) and Heads of Governments (Prime Ministers).

Twenty-five years ago, noone gaged the dramatic outcome of the new millennium's highly technological era.  Within the first decade of the 21st century, the world began changing fast,  loosing the power to attract, inspire and motivate young people on "value judgements" or understand those leadership role model qualities they inherit from family upbringing, education and living life.  Most business people have forgotten the meaning of  "integrity" and family honor - the difference between "what is right and important in life,"  becoming poor examples for young women and men entering the work place and forming career choices.

Today's modern society is forcing enormous technological changes and increased awareness of global, cultural and religious diversity.  These films and accompanying books, will inevitably offer some unique role models in further understanding on a worldwide level. Most young people are terribly confused in this rapidly changing world which comes at a high cost to their own future lives, fostering apathy and disengagement, and leaving them poorly equipped for new challenges.

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The story began as we started researching and developing a personal biography on the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi in June 1980, when I was given permission for a personal interview and flew to the capital city, Delhi.  Unfortunately, the day following my arrival, there was the tragic news of her younger son's death in a plane crash, so the film was shelved, although I continued intensive research at the Nehru Museum, meeting friends and colleagues of the Prime Minister and visiting the government photo archival library and the department of Film.  Eventually I returned back to New York to work on fundraising for the budget.

 

Then suddenly two years later,  I received a telex from her son, Rajiv Gandhi stating that Mrs. Gandhi's Office had given permission to produce the film.  Of course, he  had assisted in getting it in writing from her office and I learned we were given 10 days to complete the film !  So my team and I scripted and worked 24-hour a day and we completed a 35mm film-made-for-TV titled: "FACING THE CHALLENGE" as scheduled.  It had to premiere in New York, during her official trip heading the Indian Delegtion to the United Nations General Assembly in the third week of September 1983. 

 

The whole process of visual documentation  was so innovative and inspiring that I must admit it was one of my most successful film projects.  We met all the deadlines with complete determination. Within those ten days, we found ourselves so challenged by the assignment, that we forgot all those difficult years to produce a half hour film on a woman political leader.  Of course, we were aware that we held the trump card with her son as our contact.

 

From day one, every minute moved as though we were preparing an orchestra for opening night, altering visuals scripts, not straying from the theme: "leadership role model," music and voice-over testing,  while 8-10 35mm cutters. The whole process of visual documentation  was so innovative and inspiring that I must admit it was one of my most successful film projects.  We met all the deadlines with complete determination.

 

Working on documenting the biography of any political figure is a highly guarded initiative from all those authorized permissions of the Department of External Affairs, the private office of the leader in power, especially hard when she is governing the country.  It was certainly no easy task.

But soon the filmmaker forgets all those hurdles, especially when everything starts falling into place.  From the day you start reviewing over 25 thousand feet of 35mm raw film stock while visualizing and tracing all those biographical elements that make up to becoming Madame Prime Minister. As the only child and daughter of the former first Prime Minister of India, Jawarlal Nehru of Independent India in 1947, Indira Gandhi had accompanied her widowed father since a young girl, so there was plenty of film from her childhood to maturity.

Working on documenting the biography of any political figure is a highly guarded initiative from authorized permissions of the Department of External Affairs, the private office of the leader in power, especially hard when she is governing the country.  It was certainly no easy task.

But soon the filmmaker forgets all those petty hurdles of  time delays, more written permissions.  Once everything starts falling into place - from the day you start reviewing over 25 thousand feet of 35mm raw film stock while visualizing and tracing all those biographical elements that make up to becoming Madame Prime Minister. As the only child and daughter of the former first Prime Minister of India, Jawarlal Nehru of Independent India in 1947, Indira Gandhi had accompanied her widowed father since a young girl, so there was plenty of film from her childhood to maturity. 

 

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By 1986, we started to research and developed "WOMEN WHO DARED ... to become Presidents and Prime Ministers" as a 13-part TV series, and discovered nothing had been done on the subject, except for individual biographical films by the national government agencies, and books authored by national and international publishers and authors.  But there had never been a complete, compiled documentation on a large scale focusing on comparisons and similarities of the career path of  women political leaders.

What made the R & D more exciting was the extraordinary strengthen of "content" we choose.  It traces their personal life-stories, from family relationships involving parents, siblings, relatives and friends, etc.,  presenting "facts, not fiction" about the first-ever thirteen women and preparing scripts to produce individual films - a 13-part TV series.  Our target audences - global family audiences and the younger generation.

Simultaneously, we began roughly scripting the thirteen TV programs, but concentrated on the companion books as a resavoir for more elaborate intimate details, which included personal interviews in order to focused on how these specific women developed and acquired those leadership qualifies to be elected Presidents and Prime Ministers in their respective countries.

 

So each historical 13-part TV program and book series offered the "intimate story" imparting the secret ingredients of how women inherited leadership qualities, adapting with Shakespeare's seven stages of human growth: (i) Childhood, (ii) Girlhood, (iii) The Young Adult, (iv) The Bride/Wife & Mother (v) The Single Woman, Divorcee and Widow; (vi) The Career Woman and (vii) The Politician - Madam President ... Madam Prime Minister; with the final chapter as the Conclusion: remarks on summing up their leadership during the autumn years of their lives  and the Age of Serenity.

 

　

At this stage, readers from around the world, and specially women and young girls,  are invited to question, compare and discuss the global social, religious, economic and political life-styles of these women.  If some of our readers have known these women more personally, we welcome your contributions.

Contact: Vinanti Sarkar (Castellarin), GCDF Inc. New York. Tel: 2120759-4568  Email: vinanti.v@gmail.com