The Leadership: behind the scenes

Director Ili Baré and producer Greer Simpkin discuss the making of the new feature documentary, The Leadership.

Before 70+ female scientists set out on a three-week journey to Antarctica for the Homeward Bound leadership initiative, it’s co-founder Fabian Dattner approached producer Greer Simpkin with an idea: to film the maiden voyage.

“I did say to her,” Simpkin says, “[that] every documentary has to be warts and all. Everything’s got to be shown. Are you happy about that? And she [Fabian] was. She was very open,” Simpkin explains.

For director Ili Baré the experience to travel to Antarctica and meet with so many leading female scientists was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“I’d made a lot of scientific documentaries before and I had always noticed that there are a lot more male scientific experts around to consult and do research with than there were female,” says Baré. “I really wanted to look at the stories beneath the statistics.”

In this behind the scenes video, Baré and Simpkin reveal the gender gap in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) and the startling data of glacier melting on the continent.

The Leadership releases theatrically on 1 October in Perth, followed a week later on October 8 in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne. In Hobart it opens 15 October with other states to be announced soon.