What would our world look like if we had 50-50 gender parity among heads of state?

Her Excellency is a feature-length (90 mins.) documentary film about women heads of state. In 2016 I witnessed Taiwan, my motherland, elect its first female president, Tsai Ing-wen. How could such a young democracy of 20 years achieve what the United States, a much older democracy of 220 years, had yet to do?

In the past ten years, the percentage of women presidents and prime ministers have hovered around 6% of the world’s leaders. ​​A 2022 UN sustainable development goals report found that given the current pace, “it would take another 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national political leadership.”

While gender parity in political life seems so far from becoming a reality, some societies are steadily moving toward gender parity in politics despite deep resistance, misogyny and sometimes violence. Her Excellency is a rare look into how these featured women and their society enabled their rise to national leadership, paving the way for women, and LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming people to consider a political career in the highest office.

Her Excellency asks: Does gender matter in how presidents lead their country and negotiate with other countries? What do women bring to the table that men do not? Most recently, news reports found that women-led countries did much better to mitigate and contain the spread of COVID-19, namely, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan.

To date, the visits and interviews I’ve conducted with women leaders have been generative, revelatory, and inspirational to say the least. These leaders include: President of the Marshall Islands Hilda Heine (2016-2020, 2024-), Tarja Halonen (President of Finland 2000-2012), Mary McAleese (President of Ireland 1997-2011), and Torild Skard (President of the Norwegian Upper Chamber 1973-1977).

Me with former President of Ireland Mary McAleese (Photo: Tosh Tanaka)

We need $30,000 to complete the remaining interviews. Currently, we have featured women in 4 countries, and would like to feature women in 4 more countries. With our current contacts, we aim to request interviews with women leaders in Taiwan, New Zealand, Lithuania, Brazil, Indonesia and Germany.

I anticipate that these, as with the previous interviews, will offer insight on what it means to occupy the highest office, as women leaders grapple with climate crises, migration crises, the pandemic, nuclear justice, peace and conflict, decolonization, gender equity, and their relationships with superpower neighbors. Her Excellency is upbeat, pensive, entertaining, and intellectually rigorous. The documentary is geared toward a wide and culturally diverse audience who seek a different vision of international affairs.

Though a world of 50-50 gender parity in top governance can only be imagined for now, Her Excellency participates in working towards this possibility for a time to come.

With your contribution, we can solidify and complete our interviews! Any amount you contribute is appreciated! We thank you for believing in us and this film!

Note: If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit my fiscal sponsorship page at Fractured Atlas.

Post-interview with gender scholar Dr. Rebecca Richards, author of Transnational Feminist Rhetorics and Gendered Leadership in Global Politics. L to R: Dr. Richards, me, Alexis Peck, Tosh Tanaka

Our Team

Anita Chang (Co-producer/Director/Writer/Editor) is an artist scholar who has been making independent documentaries for 25 years. Her award-winning films screen and broadcast internationally, and have been presented at the Whitney Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Walker Arts Center, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and National Museum of Women in the Arts. They are distributed by Women Make Movies, Third World Newsreel, the Center for Asian American Media, Taiwan Public Television, Kanopy, and Alexander Street. Chang is associate professor of communication at California State University, East Bay, where she teaches critical media studies and production. She has been awarded grants from Creative Capital, Fulbright, San Francisco Arts Commission, National Geographic All Roads and the KQED Peter J. Owens Filmmaker’s program. Artist website: anitachangworks

Shaila Ann George (Co-producer) is an artist and social activist based in New York City. She worked at Bread & Roses Cultural Project, the cultural arm of 1199 Service Employees International Union, where she was director of a photography project called Unseenamerica. 1199SEIU is the largest healthcare union in North America, with women making up a majority of its members. She has served on the board of the Due Diligence Project, a global research-advocacy project, to create an accountability framework for States to protect women’s rights based on the due diligence principle. She currently works at The Open Society Foundations to build inclusive societies and democracies worldwide through grant making, advocacy, litigation, and impact investing. Shaila brings her years of creativity and expertise on funding opportunities and advisement on the creative and social dimensions of the project.

Tosh Tanaka (Assistant Director, Cinematographer, Sound Recordist) is a trained photojournalist who has been a multimedia director for 25 years. He produced multimedia presentations for: the Modesto Bee newspaper’s Year(s) in Review (1997-1999), elections coverage from Cambodia (1997), and travel to China’s interior (2000); for Friends and Families of Nisei Veterans final visit to French battlefields (2009); and University of California Santa Cruz’s (UCSC) Nagamine Oral History Project (2011) linking the modern histories of Japan, China and the U.S. He is the current Media Director for UCSC’s Okinawa Memories Initiative Multimedia Project (2014-present). Tosh brings years of technical competence in executing compelling and beautiful documentary images, and expertise to Her Excellency.

Alexis Peck (Research Assistant) is a student at California State University, East Bay studying communication and marketing. She is passionate about LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights and media literacy. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading, and listening to music. She is a recipient of the Communication Department Scholarship and Center for Student Research Grant. For the past 2 years, Alexis has provided critical research on women heads of state and gender dynamics for Her Excellency.

Corey Tong (Consulting Producer, expanding role as Executive Producer, Field Producer New Zealand) is an independent producer, writer, producers’ representative and programming/acquisitions consultant. He is an executive producer of Emmy-nominated Forever, Chinatown (USA, 2016, ITVS-CAAM co-production); the Emmy-winning film Last Day of Freedom (USA, 2015); producer of The Land Has Eyes (Fiji-USA, 2004-2005; Sundance; PBS, official Oscar® submission from Fiji); producer of the short documentary Beyond the Team (USA, 2012, Frameline); and producer/co-writer of The Gathering Place, set in Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco and Hawai‘i. Given Corey’s familiarity with Anita’s work over the past 20 years, he is well-suited to provide incisive strategic planning guidance during the creative development, packaging/financing; production, post, delivery phases and international launch of Her Excellency.

Deann Borshay Liem (Consulting Producer) is producer, director, and writer of the Emmy Award-nominated documentary, First Person Plural (2000, Sundance) and the award-winning films, In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (2010, PBS) and Memory of Forgotten War (2015, PBS). She served as Executive Producer for Spencer Nakasako’s Kelly Loves Tony (1998, PBS) and AKA Don Bonus (1996, PBS, Emmy Award) among others. Her latest documentary, Crossings, chronicles a group of international women peacemakers, including renowned activists Gloria Steinem and Christine Ahn, as they journey across the risky demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, calling for an end to a 70-year war that has divided the Korean peninsula and its people. Deann has provided excellent feedback on grant proposals, thematic frameworks, and fundraising reel production.

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