Clarke Gayford<\/a>, turned plenty of heads as well.<\/p>\n\n\tThe film, which recently premiered on CNN and is now streaming on HBO Max as well as CNN\u2019s streaming service, charts Ardern\u2019s unlikely ascent to the leadership of her country at the age of 37. She became Labor Party chief in 2017 after her predecessor abruptly resigned following the release of a grim public opinion poll that painted a dire picture of the party\u2019s chances in the next general election. Ardern was elected party leader, but without the usual grooming that takes place to shape a potential leader\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Rt.](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRt. Honorable Dame Jacinda Ardern<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMagnolia Pictures<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think what Jacinda did was show up unapologetically as herself,\u201d Utz observed at a recent Q&A in Los Angeles. \u201cShe says that at the beginning of the film, nobody ever told her, \u2018We\u2019re going to focus group [you], we\u2019re going to poll, you\u2019ve got to be this way, you\u2019ve got to be that way.\u2019 She didn\u2019t even know she was going to be the prime minister. So, she was really thrust into this, and she had no other choice but to be herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThat authenticity appealed to New Zealand voters, who defied expectations to keep the Labor Party in power, making Ardern the PM. She formally took office in October 2017, becoming the youngest world leader at the time. Her then-partner (now husband) Clarke began documenting Ardern as she rose to the upper echelons of power.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tClarke Gayford and Jacinda Ardern attend the \u2018Prime Minister\u2019 premiere at Sundancemon January 24, 2025 in Park City, Utah.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArturo Holmes\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn 2017, when I became the leader of the Labor Party, he just picked up his phone one day and started filming,\u201d Ardern told Deadline at Sundance. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t talk about why or what would happen with that. I think we both knew that we were on a journey that we didn\u2019t know where it would lead, and it felt important to capture. So, as much as you can see in the film that I was relatively reluctant some of the time, I\u2019m glad that he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCrises would test Ardern in office. On March 15, 2019, a gunman unleashed a horrifying terror attack on a mosque and an Islamic center in Christchurch, killing 51 people. She helped her nation grieve, and soon resolved in a public address, \u201cOur gun laws will change.\u201d Ardern made that happen and then, a year later, the PM as well as leaders everywhere faced the devastating outbreak of Covid.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJacinda Ardern in \u2018Prime Minister\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMagnolia Pictures\/Radio New Zealand<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s somebody that I had admired from afar for many, many years. I first took notice of her when she passed the gun legislation and just her handling of the Christchurch massacre was so moving,\u201d Utz noted. \u201cAnd then of course during the pandemic, I was desperate for science-based leadership, and I remember CNN and MSNBC were airing her briefings on cable news and I would tune in to watch her briefings to try to get some information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe got high marks for keeping New Zealand\u2019s infection rate very low, and yet as the film shows, a backlash eventually developed against her. Anti-vaxxers and New Zealand\u2019s version of MAGA went on the attack. Ardern not only faced the usual challenges before any leader of a country but handled those crises and the political backlash while raising a child. She gave birth to a daughter, Neve, in 2018, becoming only the second world leader to have a baby while in office (the late Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, being the first).<\/p>\n
\n\tIn January 2023, Ardern surprised supporters by stepping down from power. She would later accept a fellowship teaching at Harvard, where filmmakers Walshe and Utz conducted interviews with her for the documentary.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think she was really burnt out. She went through a lot, that\u2019s a lot to have to handle after just having a baby,\u201d Utz observed. \u201cShe says, \u2018There\u2019s not enough fuel in the tank,\u2019 and that\u2019s true. But I also think she was ready to just move on to other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEarlier this year, Ardern accepted an appointment to Oxford University\u2019s Blavatnik School of Government as a Distinguished Fellow and member of the World Leaders Circle. And at the beginning of the year she published a memoir, A Different Kind of Power. The title refers to Ardern\u2019s belief in a style of politics vastly different, from say, Donald Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe put her values of kindness and empathy before everything else. That\u2019s what guided her,\u201d Walshe told Deadline at Sundance. \u201cThat felt just so liberating for us as other female leaders, like, oh, we don\u2019t have to fill up gaps that we thought we had because we are not men. We can just lead with the traits that are probably more naturally female.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe at Sundance.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArturo Holmes\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film, which is in contention for the Academy Awards, opens in the UK on Friday. With Jacinda, Clarke and Neve now based there, it will afford the opportunity to do more Q&As with the former prime minister \u2013 who promises to be as much of a draw in Britain as she was at Sundance.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey really are as lovely in person as they are in the film,\u201d Utz said of Ardern and Gayford, \u201cso I\u2019m excited to see them because you form an attachment with your subjects after you make these kinds of films. So, I\u2019m looking forward to seeing them and looking forward to seeing Neve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLittle Neve, it seems, has inherited her mother\u2019s gift for retail politics. Grace Zahrah, who edited the documentary along with Enat Sidi, recalled her introduction to the PM\u2019s daughter, then perhaps age 5 or 6.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I first met Neve, she looked at me and she said, \u2018You look very familiar. I\u2019ve seen you somewhere before,\u2019\u201d Zahrah recalled at the LA Q&A. \u201cShe\u2019s very smart. She\u2019s so smart. And when we left, she said, \u2018I hope I see you again.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe tried to keep a lot of that in the movie when Neve walks around and is shaking people\u2019s hands in the office,\u201d Utz added. \u201cIt was really important to us to keep that humor alive throughout the film. For me, the best films take you on a ride and it\u2019s like you feel happy, you feel sad, you feel joy, you feel, like, trauma and this story kind of had it all. So, it was just really important to us to create that experience for the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who was the biggest star at the 2025 edition of Sundance? Jennifer Lopez, perhaps? Oscar winners Olivia Colman,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":420877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[196622,171,196623,196624,196625,53,57937,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-420876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-clarke-gayford","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jacinda-ardern","11":"tag-lindsay-utz","12":"tag-michelle-walshe","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-prime-minister","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115653390308944757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}