MY YEAR WITH HELEN wins two awards

Two big wins for My Year With Helen at the Huawei Mate30 Pro NZTV Awards presented last night in Auckland. Gaylene Preston was awarded Best Director documentary/factual and the film won Best Documentary.

Producer/director Gaylene Preston, co-producer Catherine Madigan, executive producer Alexander Behse, associate producer Tim Riley. Broadcast by THREE, funded by NZFC, NZ On Air, Images & Sound and private investors. Special thanks to Helen Clark.

MY YEAR WITH HELEN can be purchased for download here

My Year With Helen 4 nominations in TV Awards

Gaylene Preston Productions’ television version of MY YEAR WITH HELEN is amongst the finalists in this year’s Huawei NZTV Awards, with nominations in four categories:

 NZ On Air Best Documentary - producer Gaylene Preston, co-producer Catherine Madigan

Best Director: Documentary/Factual  - Gaylene Preston

Best Editing: Documentary/Factual – Paul Sutorius

Images & Sound Best Original Score – Jan Preston

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Dame Gaylene Preston honoured at Government House

My Year With Helen director/producer Gaylene Preston was announced as a Dame Companion of the Order of New Zealand in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List in recognition of her services to film. The honour was conferred by Her Excellency The Right Honourable Dame Patsy Reddy, the Governor General of New Zealand on May 15 in a ceremony at Government House in Auckland.

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Flicks.co.nz Katie Parker 28 June 2018

When Gaylene Preston’s My Year with Helen was released mid-way through last year it found itself at the centre of both widespread acclaim and passionate discussion, as audiences – in particular, female audiences – ruminated on the all too familiar story of a competent, qualified and, by all accounts, exceptional woman, overlooked in favour of an apparently ‘safer male’ choice.

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Times Colonist: Lindsay Kines, June 23, 2018

Helen Clark, Former New Zealand leader's rallying cry.

The former prime minister of New Zealand was in Edmonton last week to pick up an honorary degree from the University of Alberta. She’s in Victoria today to speak at the Victoria Film Festival screening of My Year with Helen, a documentary about her campaign to become secretary-general of the United Nations.

And, in between, she’s giving endless interviews about the big news back home, where current prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, had a baby this week.

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The Age - Jacqueline Maley

Helen Clark was a strong female leader before it was cool to be a strong female leader. As Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years, she used to go to global summits and often find herself the only woman in the room. The ladies’ bathroom was a lonely place.

“I did talk to [Bangaldeshi Prime Minister] Sheikh Hasina in the bathroom once,” says Clark, referring to a United Nations summit in 2000.

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Van Badham in The Guardian

'The House of Cards of the UN': Helen Clark film reveals a shadowy world

A documentary playing in Australia this month provides a happy and timely reminder that before there was Jacinda Ardern, there was Helen Clark.

The extraordinary post-parliamentary career of the former New Zealand prime minister is the subject of My Year With Helen. In it, filmmaker Gaylene Preston tells a story of leadership, patriarchy, women and power as she follows Clark into one of world’s most secretive – and significant – power processes, the one to be elected secretary general of the UN.

Sydneysiders can take part in a live Q&A with Helen Clark as well as watch her documentary, My Year with Helen, on 22 March at Event Cinemas George St Sydney. Pre-purchase tickets essential: demand.film

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The Laura Flanders Show NYC

The Laura Flanders Show in New York:

More from Women's History Month: women's leadership on the screen, in the streets and on the world stage. This week, we speak with New Zealand's former prime minister, Helen Clark and filmmaker Gaylene Preston regarding their documentary, "My Year With Helen," about Clark's foiled bid to become the UN's first female Secretary General. Then we stop by the Athena Film Festival to find out why representation remains to important to leadership behind and in front of the camera.

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Q&A with Helen and Gaylene at Athena Film Festival

My Year With Helen had its International Premiere at the Athena Film Festival in New York on February 23, 2018. The sold-out screening was followed by a Q&A with Helen Clark and Gaylene Preston.

see the video here

Stuff.co.nz report from demand.film Wellington screening

On Wednesday evening, Clark sat down for an extensive Q&A session with a Wellington audience who had gathered to watch the documentary about her bid for the top job at the UN - My Year with Helen.

Clark continued to answer questions for as long as the group wanted to ask, but the main topic of discussion was about her career-long fight to break through the glass ceiling.

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Newshub report from Athena Film Festival

Now 18 months removed from full time employment, Miss Clark has admitted a return is unlikely - but that doesn't mean she's any less busy, nor any less motivated about global development.

A hectic schedule of events, meetings and speaking engagements keep the one-time Secretary-General candidate busy. She said she's now free to pick and choose the things that matter most to her.

"The world's my oyster."

Watch video here

The Refinery by Anne Cohen February 24, 2018

A Film Festival Named After A Greek Goddess That Celebrates Women? Yes, Please!

"As far as documentaries go, the lineup is just as satisfying: Gale Ann Hurd's Mankiller is the festival's centerpiece film, and will screen alongside Alexandra Dean's Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Gaylene Preston's My Year With Helen, Signe Taylor's It's Criminal, and the Mariska Hargitay-produced I Am Evidence."

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The Young Folks - Athena preview

This year’s festival features an eclectic mix of films and events geared for every individual. Tennis star Billie Jean King will present the opening night film Battle of the Sexes at the festival on February 22. The following day, J.J. Abrams, Barbara Kopple, Amma Asante and Bridget Everett will be honored during the festival’s awards ceremony and reception.

That same night, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, along with director Gaylene Preston will present the international premiere of My Year with Helen, Preston’s documentary following Clark’s campaign to serve as the first female Secretary-General of the United Nations.

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Columbia Spectator previews Athena Film Festival

The festival is replete with current in-demand films, shorts, and documentaries—works starring bold, exemplary female leaders and their remarkable stories of resilience, courage, and fortitude.

The eighth annual Athena Film Festival will run from Thursday Feb. 22 through Sunday Feb. 25 at Barnard. The festival—co-founded in 2009 by the Barnard Athena Center for Leadership Studies alongside Women and Hollywood—is described as “a weekend dedicated to elevating female voices and stories that inspire and empower a new generation of filmmakers and individuals,” according to the festival’s website.

The festival’s guest list includes high profile names from the film industry and beyond: 70s tennis star Billie Jean King, the first elected female prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, and activist Gloria Steinem.

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Helen Clark to speak at Wellington Screening. Stuff.co.nz

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark will return to Wellington to talk about her film for the first time to a New Zealand audience.

Clark hoped audiences would leave with more insight into the "obscure" process of the United Nations.

"In New Zealand, we are accustomed to high levels of transparency," she said.

"As the film clearly conveys, the Secretary-General selection process was anything but. That was not a surprise to me, but it often is to those who have not been close to it."

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MY Year With Helen in The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter chose My Year With Helen as one of the titles to mention in their story about the upcoming Athena Film Festival. International Premiere is on February 23 at 6pm at Held Auditorium, Barnard College, New York City. Helen Clark and Gaylene Preston to attend post-screening Q&A.

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NZ Herald report on Kiwi Landing Pad event

Kiwis in San Francisco turned out in force with locals for a screening of the Helen Clark documentary My Year with Helen and a panel discussion about how women can break the glass ceiling.

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Interview with Impolitikal and Huffington Post

Sarah Illingworth: What motivated you to make a film about Helen Clark, during the year she ran for UN Secretary-General?
Gaylene Preston: I was wondering why, in a world that seemed to be getting more and more hopeless, Helen had renewed her contract at the UN – a much maligned organisation. She is not one for just smiling and waving, and I wanted to know what was fuelling her optimism.

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Interview with 2CC radio Canberra

Gaylene Preston tells Tim Shaw of 2CC in Canberra about her first meeting Helen Clark. "Neither of us can remember how we met. We just knew one another. That's New Zealand for you. Helen put it well - she said 'Well everybody knows Gaylene and everybody knows me, so we thought we knew one another'".

see full interview here