On Wednesday, March 4th, the DGA New York Theater in Manhattan hosted a screening of Hulu’s upcoming documentary “Hillary,” which tells the story of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life and the 2016 election.
Before the screening began Howard Owens and Ben Silverman, two of the executive producers of Hillary and the Co-Founders of Propagate Content which produced the film, took to the stage to provide an introduction into what the series entailed. After Owens and Silverman gave their speech, the director and executive producer of Hillary, Nanette Burstein joined the stage.
She reflected on her experience working on this documentary and thanked the people that helped her create it. Burstein said “Making a series of this sort it takes a village so I want to thank people that have been pivotal to making this film. First of all, I want to thank Hulu, Belisa Balaban who has been an incredible executive, supportive, insightful. And Dana Walden as well. The entire Hulu team has been just wonderful. As a filmmaker, you look for support but you look for creative freedom and I had both of that which is rare.”
Burstein also provided some insight into how she was able to include such exclusive film of Clinton’s 2016 campaign in the documentary. She said, “There’s a lot of footage in this series that is behind the scenes that I did not film. I inherited it. It’s behind the scenes of Hillary and her staff during the 2016 campaign that was filmed by an incredibly dedicated team: The Hillary for America Video team. So I want to thank them. I can’t even imagine what that was like.”
Finally, Clinton herself took to the stage as the audience gave her a standing ovation. Clinton began by joking about how she found herself at the center of her very own documentary. She said “I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So after 35 hours of being interviewed by this relentless director, who came with stacks of paper, having read everything, and having a million questions to ask I was having second thoughts. But I figured ‘oh well I’m too far into it now’. And I cannot tell you what an amazing experience it was working with all these people and particularly with Nanette.”
Clinton then proceeded to give thanks to everyone involved in the production of Hillary. “This is really from the bottom of my heart a thank you to all the people who are here who were not only part of that amazing campaign that I am still so proud of today. You know it’s a lot harder than it looks. What we did together is something that will always be remembered and there’s a lot more we still have to do. And to all of my friends and everyone who is both actually in this amazing series or who were interviewed.”
After Clinton’s speech the first two parts of the four-part series were screened for the audience. In the first two episodes, viewers are given behind the scenes access to Clinton’s 2016 campaign as well as insight into what her life was like living in the public eye for so many decades. Through her interviews and the interviews of her husband, former classmates, friends and journalists, viewers are able to get a full unfiltered picture of the real Hillary Rodham Clinton.
All four parts of the Hillary documentary series will be available for streaming on Hulu on Friday March 6th.
