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“The question of who's good and who's bad is always front of mind for me because my basic goal is to get to the place where no one is good or bad; everybody is in an unspeakably complicated situation. From the very beginning of the series, this event happens. We believe that it was perpetrated by Iran. Fairly quickly, we learn through the relationships that have been built over time between our heroes, Kate and Hal, and people in other countries that they’ve negotiated with that the assumptions we're making are completely incorrect. In fact, the people we assume have some sort of malintent toward us are being falsely accused. Someone else is playing on the stereotypes we have of those people in order to send us off in the wrong direction.

I feel very fortunate that the medium I’m in is television, which is a very long form of storytelling. You're not telling a single story; you're telling a world. You're inviting people into a world and asking them to live there with you and these characters for a period of time. The best I can do is build a world where people grapple with these important questions and try their best. All I can expect from people and from myself is that we're trying to do something larger than ourselves.”

Debora Cahn is the Emmy-nominated showrunner and executive producer ofNetflix’s The Diplomat, a political thriller series starring Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell. She’s worked with television’s leading showrunners, including Shonda Rhymes, Terence Winter, Steven Levinson, and Howard Gordon. Her career began working on Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing which has led to projects such as the hit Showtime series Homeland, ABC’s long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and HBO’s Vinyl, which was co-created by Martin Scorsese. She’s the winner of two Writers Guild of America Awards for The West Wing and FX’s limited series Fosse/Verdon and the 2023 Quincy Award for Responsible Statecraft.

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What are the unseen challenges faced by diplomats, and what role do they play in maintaining global order? How do TV shows influence our understanding of real-world politics? How do women navigate power, and what does it take for them to lead in politics?

Debora Cahn is the Emmy-nominated showrunner and executive producer ofNetflix’s The Diplomat, a political thriller series starring Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell. She’s worked with television’s leading showrunners, including Shonda Rhymes, Terence Winter, Steven Levinson, and Howard Gordon. Her career began working on Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing which has led to projects such as the hit Showtime series Homeland, ABC’s long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and HBO’s Vinyl, which was co-created by Martin Scorsese. She’s the winner of two Writers Guild of America Awards for The West Wing and FX’s limited series Fosse/Verdon and the 2023 Quincy Award for Responsible Statecraft.

“The question of who's good and who's bad is always front of mind for me because my basic goal is to get to the place where no one is good or bad; everybody is in an unspeakably complicated situation. From the very beginning of the series, this event happens. We believe that it was perpetrated by Iran. Fairly quickly, we learn through the relationships that have been built over time between our heroes, Kate and Hal, and people in other countries that they’ve negotiated with that the assumptions we're making are completely incorrect. In fact, the people we assume have some sort of malintent toward us are being falsely accused. Someone else is playing on the stereotypes we have of those people in order to send us off in the wrong direction.

I feel very fortunate that the medium I’m in is television, which is a very long form of storytelling. You're not telling a single story; you're telling a world. You're inviting people into a world and asking them to live there with you and these characters for a period of time. The best I can do is build a world where people grapple with these important questions and try their best. All I can expect from people and from myself is that we're trying to do something larger than ourselves.”

www.creativeprocess.info
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

image credit: Netflix

What does it mean to live a good life? How can the arts help us learn to speak the language of the Earth and cultivate our intuitive intelligence? What is the power of mentorship for forging character and creative vision? How can we hold onto our cultural heritage and traditions, while preparing students for the needs of the 21st century?

Alan Poul (Emmy & Golden Globe-winning Executive Producer · Director · Six Feet Under · Tales of the City · Tokyo Vice · My So-Called Life) shares his personal journey and the importance of mentorship in shaping one's creative path. He discusses his experiences with influential figures such as Stephen Sondheim, Paul Schrader, and Robert Wilson, emphasizing the value of learning from those you admire.

Rupert Sheldrake (Biologist · Author of The Science Delusion · The Presence of the Past · Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work) explores the significance of cultural and religious traditions in education. He argues that knowing the open questions in science, integrating arts, and learning by heart are crucial for a well-rounded education.

Jericho Brown (Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet · Director of Creative Writing Program at Emory University · Author of The Tradition · The New Testament) emphasizes the power and agency that young writers have to create change. He encourages persistence and the importance of trying, despite the fear of failure.

Sy Montgomery (Naturalist · Author of The Soul of an Octopus · The Hawk’s Way · Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell) reflects on how animals have been her mentors and teachers. From her Scottish Terrier, Molly, to wild emus in Australia, she shares how her interactions with animals have guided her career and life choices.

Manuela Lucá-Dazio (Exec. Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize · Fmr. Exec. Director of Venice Biennale · Dept. of Visual Arts & Architecture) discusses the necessity of reconnecting with cultural heritage and expanding educational tools. She advocates for a more imaginative approach to integrating different fields of knowledge and teaching methods.

Jeffrey D. Sachs (Economist · President of UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network · Director of Center for Sustainable Development · Columbia University) highlights the global consensus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the critical importance of education. He specifically advocates for SDG 4, which focuses on inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

Todd B. Kashdan (Psychologist · APA Award-winning Author of The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively · Curious? · The Upside of Your Dark Side · Leading Authority on Well-being, Curiosity, Courage & Resilience) analyzes the shortcomings of the current education system. He stresses the need to teach critical thinking and develop superior information-gathering strategies.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Founder · Host · Exec. Director of First Voices Radio · Founder of Akantu Intelligence · Master Musician of the Ancient Lakota Flute) offers a unique perspective on our connection to the Earth. He delves into Indigenous wisdom about living in harmony with nature, our ancestors, and recognizing the timeless energy around us.

Erland Cooper (Songwriter · Producer · Multi-instrumentalist · Composer of Folded Landscapes) reminisces about his upbringing surrounded by nature and traditional folk music. He shares how these elements have influenced his work and creative process.

Peter Singer (Philosopher · Author of Animal Liberation · Founder of The Life You Can Save) examines the core philosophical questions about living a good life. He discusses the principles of Effective Altruism and the importance of using our resources wisely to make the world a better place.

From the importance of mentorship and cultural heritage to the value of education and the wisdom of Indigenous traditions, the guests offer an exploration of how we can lead more creative and connected lives filled with meaning and purpose.

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To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.
Music courtesy of composer Max Richter, Universal Music Enterprises, and Mute Song.
The interviews highlighted in this episode were conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this episode was Sophie Garnier. The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast is produced by Mia Funk.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer, and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What is love? How do the relationships we have early in our lives affect us for years to come?

Meaghan Oppenheimer is a screenwriter, executive producer, and showrunner who tells stories driven by flawed, deeply human characters and the relationships between them. She’s behind Hulu’s drama series Tell Me Lies, starring Grace Van Patten and Jackson White and adapted from Carola Lovering’s novel of the same name. Her earlier projects include the 2015 film We Are Your Friends, starring Zac Efron as a passionate young DJ, and the 2018 drama series Queen America, set in Oppenheimer’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. Season 2 of Tell Me Lies will premiere September 4th on Hulu. Oppenheimer is also currently developing the upcoming Hulu show Second Wife, to star Tom Ellis and Emma Roberts.

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THE CREATIVE PROCESS

For those who haven't seen season one of Tell Me Lies, just give us a little bit of background on Lucy and Stephen and their circle of friends.

MEAGHAN OPPENHEIMER

Tell Me Lies really is about obsessive love and the ramifications of the things that we do to ourselves and to other people when we allow ourselves to get completely lost inside of another person. It’s also a coming of age story about people who are experiencing sexual awakenings and love, or what they think is love, for the first time. You have Lucy, a college freshman who is sort of emotionally stunted because of a few things in her life, and she meets Stephen, who is a very charming narcissist, who has a lot of his own issues. So the show is about her getting completely entangled in this obsession with him, and the way that it pulls her further and further away from herself, and causes her to really undermine her own happiness and throw away any power that she has. She ends up betraying a lot of friendships; the rest of the cast make up their college friends.

Season one is definitely more of a love story than season two is. I keep saying season one is the love story, season two is sort of a war story. It’s about these college kids who are making these choices that in the moment seem very mundane, but have much bigger consequences later on. Often when people write or make movies about romances with young adults, I think they are very flippant about it and don't take it seriously. But I think that those friendships and romantic relationships are some of the most important ones because they really set the stage for the rest of our lives. If your first relationship is incredibly toxic and damaging, it can take you years to figure out that that's not normal, and that that's not actually how relationships are meant to be.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

You weave stories so well that your audience can imagine themselves into these situations they have never experienced themselves. What does your writing and creative process look like?

MEAGHAN OPPENHEIMER

There’s a lot of sitting alone in a room and just thinking about crazy ideas. I spend a lot of time just listening to music and coming up with stories. I think with this show, there's an element where I’ve found our audience really wants to be shocked. I also found this when we were writing the first season; you hand things in to the Hulu executives and the 20th executives and people really liked to be completely surprised and completely shocked. And so it sort of became this game of, how can we do something that lives in the real world - that is believable enough that it could have happened or has happened to people we know - but then turn it up a notch so it really catches people off guard. It’s been fun to try to put things in the show that people don't see coming. It's hard to do that nowadays.

But for the most part, I just always try to think about, who is this character? What do they want? Thinking about what a character wants is always the first drive, because everything we do comes from something we want, whether we're telling the truth or lying, whether it's conscious or subconscious. If you just try to think about, ‘what does this character want, and what are they willing to do to get it?’ then you can let the plot unfold organically.

I acted as a kid, and it definitely was what taught me how to write, because I was always reading scripts and reading plays. I learned a lot about what actually feels realistic to say and what doesn't. I think a mistake that a lot of writers make is they don't say any of the words out loud, and so when someone actually says it out loud, you realize, these words don't even fit in my mouth. Certain sentences literally feel awkward and you realize no one would ever speak this way. And so as I'm writing, I'm definitely quietly whispering everything to myself, not acting it out, but just making sure it feels like it can flow, and that it won't be too difficult for an actor to actually say. I'm not always trying to get into the mind of each character, I'm not stepping into their psyche, but with all of them I’m thinking, what do I relate to about this character? And if I don't relate to them, who do I know that feels similar, and what would that person do? So I always have to draw on my own experiences, or people that I know. I pretty much always do. I write about relationships and love and family, and while the stories are not autobiographical, the emotions are. Pretty much all the emotions that are in Tell Me Lies are things that I have felt before to different degrees.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

What is it like writing for actors you know, like Grace Van Patten and Jackson White in Tell Me Lies, who are also in a relationship in real life, and your husband Tom Ellis? How much are you drawing on different things you've learned about these actors along the way - their energies and what they bring to a project - so that you can write to their strengths?

MEAGHAN OPPENHEIMER

The whole Tell Me Lies cast, they're all my friends, I know them all. I know their real lives, and I have to put that completely to the side when I'm writing. I have to be very, very disciplined about not mixing those two in my mind and not confusing what Grace would do and what Lucy would do, because they're so different. But with that said, I think once you start working with a character or with an actor, writing their dialogue, you know what the actor's voice sounds like and what their mannerisms are and the tone of their voice. You know how it will sound in their mouth. So writing towards the strengths of different actors, I think, is something you have to learn how to do. I loved the first season, but that’s why I do think the second season is much better. Knowing who these characters were and knowing what everyone's strengths were was very helpful, like knowing with Grace that she's able to say so much without saying anything. Her face is just so expressive. There were times where I would get a note like, can you explain this moment more? And I’d say, you'll be able to see it on Grace's face. It's nice knowing you have an actor like that.

On Nurturing Education and the Importance of the Arts

English and theater were always the subjects I gravitated towards, and history, because history is just one big story. I had a teacher named Gary Sweeney at Holland Hall, who is one of the most impactful people I've met. He gave me a love of theater that I didn't have before, and showed me texts and plays that I never would have come across as a teenager in Tulsa.

I had a great education, but I think there was also a structure that could be very rigid. There was so much that I stressed over as a kid that didn't end up mattering; the hours of homework or the stakes around a math test or a science quiz. And I think there are schools now that are changing it, but I do wish there was a way to educate young people without giving them the anxieties of an adult, and allowing them to still be kids without this feeling of, if I fail this test, my entire life is going to be over, because it’s not. I have a nine-month-old baby, and we talk a lot about when we put her in school, trying to find a more alternative education where she is able to learn what she needs to learn, but also to love learning, not just putting in hours for hours’ sake.

In terms of educating people about art and teaching art, I worked with girls who were at a home, many of them were orphans, and they had really been taught to not take up space and to be quiet and inwards. Watching the way that they blossomed by doing performance - the way it teaches you to be loud and use your voice and take up space - they didn’t want to become actors or playwrights, but it was just incredibly liberating for them. I can't imagine what I would be like if I hadn't been involved in some level of art as a kid, because I think it taught me how to find my voice and also understand people who are very different from me.

Storytelling is the most important thing in my life. I think it's how we learn about ourselves. I think it's how we learn to empathize with other people. We can't experience everything someone is, everyone in the world is going through, but we can read a book about it and open our brains up to a different corner of the human experience that we would never have contact with in our day-to-day lives. Building empathy is one of the most important outcomes of art.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Sofia Reecer with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interview Producer and Associate Text Editor for this episode was Sofia Reecer. The Creative Process is produced by Mia Funk.Additional production support by Katie Foster.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can we free ourselves from fear and social barriers to live more fulfilling and meaningful lives? What does it take to overcome trauma and turn it into triumph, and failure into reinvention? How can we shine a light on the marginalized and misunderstood to create social change that transforms the lives of women?

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an Oscar and Emmy award-winning Canadian-Pakistani filmmaker whose work highlights extraordinary women and their stories. She earned her first Academy Award in 2012 for her documentary Saving Face, about the Pakistani women targeted by brutal acid attacks. Today, Obaid-Chinoy is the first female film director to have won two Oscars by the age of 37. In 2023, it was announced that Obaid-Chinoy will direct the next Star Wars film starring Daisy Ridley. Her most recent project, co-directed alongside Trish Dalton, is the new documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, about the trailblazing Belgian fashion designer who invented the wrap dress 50 years ago. The film had its world premiere as the opening night selection at the 2024 Tribeca Festival on June 5th and premiered on June 25th on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally. A product of Obaid-Chinoy's incredibly talented female filmmaking team, Woman in Charge provides an intimate look into Diane von Furstenberg’s life and accomplishments and chronicles the trajectory of her signature dress from an innovative fashion statement to a powerful symbol of feminism.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

You tell the story of Diane von Fürstenberg: Woman in Charge, and it's truly fascinating because it's not just one story but many. It encompasses 50 years since the creation of the wrap dress. It’s the story of Diane, but it’s also her mother’s history as a Holocaust survivor and how she instilled in Diane resilience, imagination, and drive. You tell so many layered interesting stories, 1950s and 60s in Europe, 1970s in America in the era of sexual freedom and the hedonistic New York scene. It's the story of a businesswoman, a princess, a marriage, reinvention, and a dress that became a symbol of women's empowerment and liberation. In the way that Diane Von Furstenberg created a timeless dress that became a symbol of freedom for women worldwide, you present us with the beautiful life of a single working mother, allowing us to see ourselves in her vulnerabilities and struggles, inspiring us to chart our own path and find our voice on the journey to becoming women in charge. With all these intricate stories, how did you find your way into her story?

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

As a filmmaker, I've always made films about extraordinary women whose lives are faced with extenuating circumstances who've had adversity thrown at them and who've risen to the occasion. And when I began to look at Diane's story, for me, Diane is a fashion designer, but she's so much more. Her central ethos is woman before fashion, and we felt it was very important to take that ethos and weave it into the spine of our film, and make it about the woman.

The Making of Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge

From the first time we sat down with Diane, she's such a natural storyteller that she began at her birth, which was a triumph because her mother had come out of Auschwitz only 18 months before she was born. As we began to tell Diane's story, we realized that it was so intrinsically linked with the history, politics, culture of the world, whether it was Europe in the 1950s and 60s, or America in the 70s and 80s. We felt that while we were telling Diane's story, we also wanted to tell the bigger story of what was happening in the world at that time. And so you see that when you watch the film, there are many layers, whether it's graphics, or music, or archival footage, or photographs that we’ve used. Together, they weave a story of what it was like to live at that time. And that is a very conscious decision that Trish Dalton, my co-director, and I made when we were designing the film.

Towards the end of our filming, Diane took us on a walk, and as we walked through the woods, we ended up at a flat ground that had a stone wall around it. And Diane looked at me and said, “This is my resting place.” We knew that in telling Dan's story, we had a beginning, middle, and end, and that had been clearly defined by Diane herself. And that was the natural arc of the film that we chose to tell.

Once Diane was ready to tell her story, we spent a lot of time talking with the camera off, and spending time with her, traveling with her, having meals with her and really peeling the onion to get to the heart of Diane. At its core, it is also a film about four generations of women. It's about Diane's mother, it's about Diane, it's about Diane's daughter, and her granddaughter. We wanted all those voices in the film, and her family was incredible in that they allowed us into the inner sanctum of their lives.

Trish and I were really spoiled for choice because Diane has, unlike so many other people, documented every single minute of her life. In the basement of her house, there is a long room that has all her diaries, photographs, videos, mementos, letters from her children, and scrapbooks. And so when we began telling this story, we really went deep into her personal archives. That is why the film is so rich; that is why you see Diane when she's two, three, four years old, you hear from her mother. That is why, as Diane goes on a journey from Europe to America, you go through her scrapbooks and you see her own personal journey and her children's journey.

And I think in making this film, every single person who we called whose voice we wanted to include wanted to contribute. They wanted to say something about Diane, because she had left such a mark on their lives. Our producers’ jobs, Tracy and Fabiola, was to juggle those schedules. How do you juggle the schedule of secretary Hillary Clinton with Oprah Winfrey? How do you make sure that Anderson Cooper and Mark Jacobs, you know, in the filming time that we had, that we could put all of these people together? But Diane's friendships run deep with people, and people made sure to make time.

You know, she was a single mother, and I think that young single mothers watching this film will feel for Diane, especially single mothers who are trying to be entrepreneurs, and creating businesses, and trying to find their way into the world to be able to raise a family. To do that as an immigrant in a new country is challenging, and Diane shows you just how challenging it is. In making choices about living her life, in being with her children or expanding her business, there were sacrifices that were made, and those sacrifices are boldly put on the screen for viewers to watch.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

You've told the stories of marginalized communities in Pakistan and women who have risen above their personal circumstances to highlight issues such as honor killings and acid attacks, or challenging stories in war zones, like children of the Taliban. As a storyteller, you’ve been at the front lines of trauma and injustice, and during this process, you've been threatened and harassed at times. How do you overcome your own fears and find the courage to ask those important questions and tell these important stories that are not often told?

OBAID-CHINOY

When I was young, I think empathy and the fact that I wanted to create characters, or tell the stories of people who had been on hero's journeys and who had been faced with extraordinary circumstances - that is something that has always driven me. The spine of the body of my work has been about the hero's journeys. And sometimes, when you are telling stories, and holding up a mirror, there are reverberations that take place. And I think that for me, the question is if I am bringing to screen the stories of people who will inspire others, move others to think about other people in a different light. If I feel like I've been able to do that, then I think the price to pay to tell those stories is worth it.

I realized very young and very early on in my career that film does more than just inform and inspire and entertain. It can move people into action, whether it's personal or collective action. The first time I realized that was in 2006, when I did a film in the Philippines, which was about women who did not have access to contraceptives and were being forced into a life of constant pregnancies. The organization that I was profiling as part of that film used the film to lobby the local government to rethink its decisions. Suddenly, my film went from just being a film to something bigger than that. And that's when I realized that there could be certain films that I create that could impact the lives of other people.

In 2015, with A Girl in the River, I created a film that was about a young girl who had been shot by her father and her uncle because she had decided to get married on her own free will. They left her to die in a gunny sack in the river, and she survived. Sabah's story was deeply inspiring, because she wanted to send her father and uncle to jail, but in the end, she forgave them using a lacuna in the law. And when it was nominated for an Academy Award, we wrote a letter to the prime minister of Pakistan, and we used the film to educate and inform the government about the impact of the lacuna in that law, and how it was being misused. The film played a role in closing that and changing the law, which ensured that men who killed women in the name of honor would go to prison.

As a filmmaker, when I go into a project, I go in with a very open mind, because I'm there to learn and to understand the protagonist and their struggles. But as we're filming, we begin to piece together what the story is, what is the start of the story, what moves them, what are the pivotal moments in their life, and I think that we begin to put the building blocks off that. And then, towards the end of the filming, that's when we really realize what the arc of the story is. Oftentimes, it's not the arc that we originally envisioned it was going to be. As a filmmaker, I like to be surprised. I like to think that what I came into the film with has changed, because that's the real “aha moment” when you're a filmmaker.

On Embracing Technology and the Future Impact of AI on Film

I think it's very early for us to see how AI is going to impact us all, especially documentary filmmakers. And so I embrace technology, and I encourage everyone as filmmakers to do so. We're looking at how AI is facilitating filmmakers to tell stories, create more visual worlds. I think that right now we're in the play phase of AI, where there's a lot of new tools and you're playing in a sandbox with them to see how they will develop.

I don't think that AI has developed to the extent that it is in some way dramatically changing the film industry as we speak, but in the next two years, it will. We have yet to see how it will. As someone who creates films, I always experiment, and then I see what it is that I'd like to take from that technology as I move forward.

Reflections on Climate Change and Connecting with Mother Nature

My production company SOC Films, which works out of Pakistan, has created more than 15 short films about climate change in the region, and created a book for children to talk about climate change heroes. Pakistan is one of the top 10 countries in the world most affected by climate change. And so at the heart of everything that I do, climate change matters greatly to me because I have a personal connection to it.

I love to hike and I seek out mountains and quiet places where one can be in solitude with nature. I think that in the desire to expand and consume, we have really shaken the core of that connection that we have with Mother Earth — and I think that it's important. It's incumbent upon us to make sure that our children's generation and their children's generation have that same connection, where they can be in parts of the world where Mother Nature has been left to be in the state that it's meant to be in.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interview Producer and Associate Text Editor on this episode was Sophia Reecer. Additional production support by Katie Foster.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
Listen on Spotify Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How can we free ourselves from fear and social barriers to live more fulfilling and meaningful lives? What does it take to overcome trauma and turn it into triumph, and failure into reinvention? How can we shine a light on the marginalized and misunderstood to create social change that transforms the lives of women?

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an Oscar and Emmy award-winning Canadian-Pakistani filmmaker whose work highlights extraordinary women and their stories. She earned her first Academy Award in 2012 for her documentary Saving Face, about the Pakistani women targeted by brutal acid attacks. Today, Obaid-Chinoy is the first female film director to have won two Oscars by the age of 37. In 2023, it was announced that Obaid-Chinoy will direct the next Star Wars film starring Daisy Ridley. Her most recent project, co-directed alongside Trish Dalton, is the new documentary Diane von Fürstenberg: Woman in Charge, about the trailblazing Belgian fashion designer who invented the wrap dress 50 years ago. The film had its world premiere as the opening night selection at the 2024 Tribeca Festival on June 5th and premiered on June 25th on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally. A product of Obaid-Chinoy's incredibly talented female filmmaking team, Woman in Charge provides an intimate look into Diane von Fürstenberg’s life and accomplishments and chronicles the trajectory of her signature dress from an innovative fashion statement to a powerful symbol of feminism.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

You tell the story of Diane von Fürstenberg: Woman in Charge, and it's truly fascinating because it's not just one story but many. It encompasses 50 years since the creation of the wrap dress. It’s the story of Diane, but it’s also her mother’s history as a Holocaust survivor and how she instilled in Diane resilience, imagination, and drive. You tell so many layered interesting stories, 1950s and 60s in Europe, 1970s in America in the era of sexual freedom and the hedonistic New York scene. It's the story of a businesswoman, a princess, a marriage, reinvention, and a dress that became a symbol of women's empowerment and liberation. In the way that Diane Von Furstenberg created a timeless dress that became a symbol of freedom for women worldwide, you present us with the beautiful life of a single working mother, allowing us to see ourselves in her vulnerabilities and struggles, inspiring us to chart our own path and find our voice on the journey to becoming women in charge. With all these intricate stories, how did you find your way into her story?

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

As a filmmaker, I've always made films about extraordinary women whose lives are faced with extenuating circumstances who've had adversity thrown at them and who've risen to the occasion. And when I began to look at Diane's story, for me, Diane is a fashion designer, but she's so much more. Her central ethos is woman before fashion, and we felt it was very important to take that ethos and weave it into the spine of our film, and make it about the woman.

The Making of Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge

From the first time we sat down with Diane, she's such a natural storyteller that she began at her birth, which was a triumph because her mother had come out of Auschwitz only 18 months before she was born. As we began to tell Diane's story, we realized that it was so intrinsically linked with the history, politics, culture of the world, whether it was Europe in the 1950s and 60s, or America in the 70s and 80s. We felt that while we were telling Diane's story, we also wanted to tell the bigger story of what was happening in the world at that time. And so you see that when you watch the film, there are many layers, whether it's graphics, or music, or archival footage, or photographs that we’ve used. Together, they weave a story of what it was like to live at that time. And that is a very conscious decision that Trish Dalton, my co-director, and I made when we were designing the film.

Towards the end of our filming, Diane took us on a walk, and as we walked through the woods, we ended up at a flat ground that had a stone wall around it. And Diane looked at me and said, “This is my resting place.” We knew that in telling Dan's story, we had a beginning, middle, and end, and that had been clearly defined by Diane herself. And that was the natural arc of the film that we chose to tell.

Once Diane was ready to tell her story, we spent a lot of time talking with the camera off, and spending time with her, traveling with her, having meals with her and really peeling the onion to get to the heart of Diane. At its core, it is also a film about four generations of women. It's about Diane's mother, it's about Diane, it's about Diane's daughter, and her granddaughter. We wanted all those voices in the film, and her family was incredible in that they allowed us into the inner sanctum of their lives.