Credit: ITMAside from the infamous slap heard around the world last year, most film industry award show ratings have declined over the years. Even though many view it as a celebration of art and artists of cinema, others feel it has become a glorified excuse to glamorize an elitist culture. While both viewpoints have merit, the actual presentation of this event does play like a movie at times. There are underdogs, famed champions, dark horses, and unexpected dual threats. There is no better display of this spectacle than Netflix helping Hillary Clinton to win her first Emmy award.
Hillary Clinton has constructed an astounding resume. She has been the former First Lady, Secretary of State, a U.S. senator, and very polarizing presidential contender. Her decades of political experience, along with the notoriety of her last name prompted Netflix to distribute a documentary with Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, as executive producers.
Her documentary, In her Hands, has now won an Emmy for “Best Politics and Government Documentary” at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. This was the Clintons’ first project since forming their production company, HiddenLight Productions. The story focused on Zarifa Ghafari, Afghanistan’s youngest female mayor as she persevered to overcome stereotypes and do what was best for her people.
The project chronicled 19 months worth of Ghafari’s journey before the Taliban took over Afghanistan. It was a perilous production as the crew recorded Ghafari’s transition from mayor of Maidan Shahr to Afghanistan in the midst of a rising global pandemic, the fall of the country’s capital, Kabul, and the Taliban’s resurgence.
It would not be a Hillary Clinton endeavor without controversy as In Her Hands was not universally received well. One Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras claimed that Clinton supported a “kind of whitewashing” of the story. This director’s opinion stemmed from the fact that the Clintons, nor its two directors, Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen, acknowledged America’s hostile intervention during this humanitarian crisis.
Despite this harsh criticism, the Netflix documentary won the Audience Award at the Camden International Film Festival, positive reception at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere and now a prestigious Emmy award. It would beat out other critically-acclaimed political documentaries like, Watergate: High Crimes in The White House, Not Going Quietly, Apart and A Radical Life.
Since her presidential loss in 2016, Hillary Clinton has seemed to retire from politics altogether. She would go onto write a best-selling book that gave a first-hand account of what it was like to be involved in politics as a woman, as well as the chaos involved during her 2016 presidential run. Her switch to movie producer has proven a fruitful career move as doc projects like Gutsy were picked up by Apple Tv+, In the Shadow of Beirut has been collecting awards in the film festival circuit and now In Her Hands has snatched the Emmy.
In Her Hands is currently streaming on Netflix.
Should Netflix invest more in Clinton’s projects after winning them an Emmy? Will Clinton’s name prevent her from reaching a commercial audience?