Responses by Preston Garrett, executive producer, managing director and cofounder, Rakish; AJ Hassan; chief creative officer and founder, Capital A; and Jaci Judelson, director, Rakish.
Background: “In a global study, Kotex uncovered that 60 percent of women believe the progress of women’s rights has either stagnated or is moving slowly—it’s a staggering truth,” explains AJ Hassan. “The #ProgressFeelsLike effort is being launched to address threats to women’s progress and encourage women worldwide to share what progress feels like in their daily lives, inciting conversation and accelerating change.”
Design thinking: “The approach was fundamentally driven by a desire for global impact, aiming to emphasize the universality of our message,” says Preston Garrett. “This involved not only a diverse cast and varied environments to convey visual scale, but also a broad spectrum of women’s experiences. This holistic approach informed every creative and logistical decision, from the global locations for filming to the selection of archive footage and representing different cultures and emotions portrayed on screen.”
Favorite details: “The project sought to amplify women’s voices, and it was crucial that we had a diverse crew with us in telling these stories,” explains Jaci Judelson, “our ‘brothers’ working alongside us and inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community both on and off screen, representing the spectrum of whatever the word womanhood can mean.”
Challenges: “Embracing the practicalities of cultural sensitivities while not shying away from depicting women’s issues across the globe with a hard-hitting tone,” says Judelson.
Time constraints: “Personally, the constraint of tight timelines proved beneficial, preventing overanalysis and fostering a reliance on creative intuition and collaboration under pressure,” says Garrett. “This immediacy encouraged decisive action and maintained momentum, ensuring that any pause was brief and productive and preserving the creative energy necessary for innovation. Ultimately, these constraints fueled a fresh, emotionally truthful vision, letting us prioritize authentic storytelling over formulaic approaches.”
New lessons: “Learning is at the heart of a project like this,” says Hassan. “I went down news rabbit holes, reading up on all the things women are coming up against globally to try and best capture how it’s affecting them intimately and collectively. As daunting as that was, I was continually met by another theme: the countless stories of unyielding women, using strength, supporting each other, whatever resources they have to find ways forward.”
Visual influences: “Driven by a mix of archival footage and live action, we pursued a ‘tone poem’ effect that prioritized emotion over anecdote, for the intimacy of being invited into these lives to be more important than their action,” says Judelson. “I’m always fueled by documentary filmmaking; however, I wanted this to have that immediacy and a strong sense of reality while avoiding the feeling of ‘reportage.’ By opting for simple lighting, often using natural daylight and vintage lenses, I aimed to create visual bridges from the historical fights for justice in archive material to current ongoing struggles.”
Specific project demands: “We wanted to represent women on a global scale, which we knew was ambitious,” says Hassan. “We deliberately cast real women from a range of cultures and countries and held discussions with them about their own experiences. This was a more dedicated process for our team, but we believe it helped honor the real experiences of women around the world.”
Browse Projects
