Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Feminists Around the World: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smansa and welcome to stuff
- 0:07Speaker 1: I've never told you a prediction of iHeartRadio. And welcome
- 0:19Speaker 1: to another edition a Feminist around the World. And yes,
- 0:21Speaker 1: I'm taking over your segment again, Samantha.
- 0:24Speaker 2: I dare you, Yes, so I dare I.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Dare I do want to put a timestamp on this
- 0:31Speaker 1: one because it's changing a lot. Today is January tenth,
- 0:36Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Happy belated birthday to my friend Marissa.
- 0:40Speaker 3: If you're listening, Happy belated birthday Marissa.
- 0:43Speaker 2: Yeap yesterday yesterday.
- 0:45Speaker 1: So yeah, this one is a bit of a follow
- 0:47Speaker 1: up I mentioned recently. It's a bit of a follow
- 0:50Speaker 1: up on the episode we did my last takeover of
- 0:54Speaker 1: the segment on Nia da Costa and the Marvels. So
- 0:57Speaker 1: today we are talking about the director of the next
- 1:00Speaker 1: Star Wars movie that is going to focus on Daisy
- 1:02Speaker 1: Ridley's character Ray and her Jedi Order. It's supposed to
- 1:05Speaker 1: take place fifteen years after the Rise of Skywalker. It's
- 1:08Speaker 1: set to come out sometime in twenty twenty six. But
- 1:12Speaker 1: this director is Charmine Obeyed Hinoi. She has said she
- 1:16Speaker 1: loves heroes, she loves the lived in esthetic, of the
- 1:19Speaker 1: original trilogy and things like Andora. That's part of why
- 1:22Speaker 1: she was hired. She is the first woman and Pakistani
- 1:26Speaker 1: American to direct a Star Wars movie. So quickly, there's
- 1:31Speaker 1: a reason this story came into my lap, and it
- 1:34Speaker 1: was kind of comical and infuriating. So I was hanging
- 1:38Speaker 1: out with a friend of mine recently and she was
- 1:40Speaker 1: talking about how she works with this guy who is
- 1:45Speaker 1: liberal in some ways but very conservative in other ways,
- 1:48Speaker 1: and she can't quite figure him out. And one of
- 1:51Speaker 1: the examples she brought up was she said he was
- 1:54Speaker 1: talking he didn't understand her point. She was making about
- 1:58Speaker 1: like toxic fandom, women and people of color off of
- 2:03Speaker 1: social media, like all of this, and he didn't know
- 2:06Speaker 1: what she was talking about. But of course he had
- 2:09Speaker 1: a comeback and it was, well, did you hear what
- 2:10Speaker 1: this new director has said? She has said that this
- 2:14Speaker 1: new movie she's making is going to make men uncomfortable,
- 2:18Speaker 1: And I was like, huh, that doesn't sound right. I
- 2:21Speaker 1: feel like I would know about this if that was true.
- 2:24Speaker 1: And sure enough, so I have quite a story for you.
- 2:28Speaker 1: But first let us break down Charmino Bai Chanoi. She
- 2:34Speaker 1: is a Canadian Pakistani activist, journalist, documentarian, and filmmaker, perhaps
- 2:39Speaker 1: best known for her work around honor killings and asset
- 2:42Speaker 1: attacks against girls and women in her home country. She
- 2:46Speaker 1: was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in nineteen seventy eight, and
- 2:49Speaker 1: she later moved to the US, where she received a
- 2:51Speaker 1: bachelor's in economics and government from Smith College and then
- 2:54Speaker 1: two master's degrees from Stanford University and Communication and International
- 2:58Speaker 1: Policy Studies. After she graduated, she moved to Canada with
- 3:01Speaker 1: her husband, where she became a Canadian citizen, But in
- 3:06Speaker 1: two thousand and two she returned to Pakistan to make documentaries.
- 3:09Speaker 1: Her twenty twelve documentary Saving Face traced the harsh history
- 3:13Speaker 1: of acid attacks against women in Pakistan, highlighting the stories
- 3:17Speaker 1: of two survivors of these attacks and bringing to light
- 3:19Speaker 1: how prevalent they were at the time, and as part
- 3:22Speaker 1: of her work, she helped push for changes to address
- 3:25Speaker 1: these attacks. Here's the quote from screen rant. Her works
- 3:28Speaker 1: have been hugely influential, resulting in actual changes of the
- 3:32Speaker 1: law pertaining to honor killings in Pakistan. In twenty twelve,
- 3:35Speaker 1: the government of Pakistan awarded Obeyed Chenoi one of its
- 3:38Speaker 1: highest civilian honors, and time magazine recognized her as one
- 3:41Speaker 1: of its top one hundred most influential people in the world.
- 3:45Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, she debuted documentary following the story of
- 3:49Speaker 1: Pakistani musicians on their journey to perform at Lincoln's Center
- 3:53Speaker 1: in New York called Song of Lahore, and her twenty
- 3:55Speaker 1: sixteen documentary A Girl in the River The Price of
- 3:58Speaker 1: Forgiveness followed the story of a woman who survived an
- 4:01Speaker 1: attempted honor killing, and in doing so, it shedded light
- 4:05Speaker 1: on the history of this practice in that country. All
- 4:08Speaker 1: of these were acclaimed, and she did a bunch of
- 4:11Speaker 1: other projects too. These are just a taste. Her other
- 4:14Speaker 1: works have looked into issues such as child abuse, gun violence, police,
- 4:18Speaker 1: women's soldiers, education, the trans experience in Pakistan, and scarcity.
- 4:24Speaker 1: And she has done children's series one including one that's
- 4:28Speaker 1: sort of like Our Female First but in Pakistan, in
- 4:32Speaker 1: an animated film called Satara Let Girls Dream That sounds
- 4:36Speaker 1: really really interesting. She also directed the twenty eighteen documentary
- 4:40Speaker 1: Student Athlete alongside Trish Dawton that was on HBO. She is,
- 4:46Speaker 1: as of January twenty twenty four, the first and only
- 4:48Speaker 1: woman director to win two Academy Awards by thirty seven
- 4:52Speaker 1: years old, and the first Pakistani winner and only one
- 4:55Speaker 1: of eleven women to win an Oscar for a non
- 4:57Speaker 1: fiction film. She's won six Emmy Awards, both at the
- 5:00Speaker 1: International Emmy Awards and News and Documentaries Awards. And that's
- 5:05Speaker 1: really just a handful of what she's won. So here's
- 5:08Speaker 1: a quick run through, but again this is not at
- 5:10Speaker 1: all complete. She was the first non US American person
- 5:15Speaker 1: to win a Livingstone Award for Young Journalist. Twenty fifteen,
- 5:18Speaker 1: she became the first Pakistani person to make a full
- 5:21Speaker 1: length computer animated movie. She was the first artist named
- 5:25Speaker 1: to co chair of the World Economic Forum in twenty seventeen.
- 5:29Speaker 1: That same year, she was awarded the Knight International Journalism
- 5:32Speaker 1: Award by the International Center for Journalist. She's also been
- 5:35Speaker 1: involved in charities. No surprise, she was key in founding
- 5:38Speaker 1: the Citizens' Archive of Pakistan in two thousand and seven,
- 5:41Speaker 1: which is an organization focused on preserving the culture and
- 5:43Speaker 1: heritage of Pakistan. Though a bulk of her work has
- 5:47Speaker 1: been in documentaries, this is not her first foray. Star
- 5:50Speaker 1: Wars will not be her first foray into Hollywood by
- 5:53Speaker 1: any means. In twenty twenty two, She directed two episodes
- 5:56Speaker 1: of the Disney Plus show Miss Marvel before seeing read
- 6:01Speaker 1: in episode five, time and time again. She was the
- 6:03Speaker 1: first Pakistani director to work with Marvel, and this did
- 6:07Speaker 1: give her a really valuable experience working with visual effects
- 6:10Speaker 1: teams who reported enjoying working with her. Cinematographer Jules Olafwin
- 6:15Speaker 1: told screen Rant, the last thing was the director. Sharmino
- 6:18Speaker 1: baie Chenoi is on paper a pretty amazing person. She's
- 6:22Speaker 1: a two time Oscar winning, seven time Any winning documentary director.
- 6:26Speaker 1: Not only that, she's very much involved in a lot
- 6:28Speaker 1: of social programs in Pakistan, highly regarded there. I did
- 6:32Speaker 1: my research, I started delving into her. I was blown away.
- 6:35Speaker 1: She sounded pretty amazing. Then I met her on a
- 6:38Speaker 1: Zoom call and we hit it off immediately. I just
- 6:40Speaker 1: thought I had to work with this woman. She just
- 6:42Speaker 1: sounds so amazing. The rest is history. I've worked with
- 6:45Speaker 1: her and I love her. She is amazing. She's everything
- 6:48Speaker 1: the Google search said she is, but so much more.
- 6:51Speaker 1: She's a really decent, wonderful human being and I loved
- 6:53Speaker 1: working with her every minute. Which, yes, if you haven't
- 6:58Speaker 1: seen that show, Miss Marvel, the host is a big
- 7:00Speaker 1: part of that show. Uh and Charmino Beijani had done
- 7:06Speaker 1: an installation called Home nineteen forty seven and twenty seventeen
- 7:09Speaker 1: all about the ten million Indian and Pakistani families displaced
- 7:12Speaker 1: by the partition, which is something that is part of
- 7:14Speaker 1: the show. Okay, so she's done a lot. Now she's
- 7:29Speaker 1: directing a Star Wars movie with a female lead, Daisy
- 7:33Speaker 1: Ridley with Ray and yes, a quote was circulating that
- 7:38Speaker 1: was going to quote make men uncomfortable. So let's break
- 7:41Speaker 1: this down. This quote is at least eight years old
- 7:45Speaker 1: and was about her film saving face about the.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't even no.
- 7:53Speaker 3: It was a dude because he's.
- 7:56Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, and it wasn't part actually a joke. She
- 8:00Speaker 1: kind of was like, oh, yeah, I like to make
- 8:02Speaker 1: men uncomfortable. And the moderator was Jon Stewart and she
- 8:05Speaker 1: immediately said to him, but not you like it was
- 8:09Speaker 1: kind of a joke, and she was talking about this
- 8:11Speaker 1: subject matter that she documented, which was very traumatic, and yeah,
- 8:16Speaker 1: should probably make you uncomfortable. And I just would like
- 8:19Speaker 1: to put a reminder here if you're mad about this
- 8:22Speaker 1: Star Wars thing, like, maybe take a second and think
- 8:25Speaker 1: about the documentary she's done, Like made me think about that.
- 8:30Speaker 1: But okay, it was eight years old quote, but everyone
- 8:33Speaker 1: was saying, oh, she hates men, she hates Star Wars.
- 8:39Speaker 1: There's like already a ton of articles and internet users
- 8:41Speaker 1: that appiled on claiming she doesn't have any experience to
- 8:45Speaker 1: be working on this movie. I would like to point
- 8:49Speaker 1: out there's a couple things I would like to point out.
- 8:52Speaker 1: One is the script is written by a man. I
- 8:56Speaker 1: do think that that's important to keep in mind because
- 8:58Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of the criticisms has gotten
- 9:00Speaker 1: as a character is that she's underdeveloped or superficial. She
- 9:05Speaker 1: was written and directed by a man, Like, I think
- 9:07Speaker 1: Daisy really did a great job. But if I feel like,
- 9:10Speaker 1: you know, maybe just keep that in the back of
- 9:11Speaker 1: your head. I also kind of feel like I get
- 9:17Speaker 1: that critique, but I feel like she's in every person
- 9:19Speaker 1: character and a lot of male heroes are that character
- 9:21Speaker 1: and they don't get the same critique. And I don't
- 9:24Speaker 1: think this. I don't know this guy. I'm not saying
- 9:26Speaker 1: he's gonna do a bad job at all. I'm just saying, like,
- 9:28Speaker 1: that's something to keep in mind, and I want success,
- 9:31Speaker 1: so I'm not like I hope he veils and I
- 9:34Speaker 1: can point him, No, I want like something.
- 9:36Speaker 2: I want a good movie. And you can see.
- 9:41Speaker 1: Our book and the chapter I did on Mary Suis
- 9:44Speaker 1: for more about this whole thing with Ray's character and
- 9:46Speaker 1: a lot of the critiques she has already gotten, and
- 9:49Speaker 1: a lot of them very sexist in nature. Obey Chnoi
- 9:53Speaker 1: even as a quote about the importance of having male
- 9:56Speaker 1: champions in your life. But she did say this will
- 9:59Speaker 1: be a women centered in feminist movie. She said, quote,
- 10:02Speaker 1: it's about time we had a woman shaped Star Wars,
- 10:05Speaker 1: which got everybody really mad, and a lot of people
- 10:07Speaker 1: I feel like we're being disingenuous with their critique of
- 10:12Speaker 1: this because they were like, well, women, have you know
- 10:14Speaker 1: what about the Brackett or whatever, and like yeah, but
- 10:17Speaker 1: this is the first woman directing the Star Wars movie,
- 10:20Speaker 1: like ah, And if you type in her name and YouTube,
- 10:25Speaker 1: all the first results were like Star Wars hates men,
- 10:29Speaker 1: Go away, Star Wars is two woke, a Star Wars
- 10:32Speaker 1: movie by a man hating feminists. The new Star Wars
- 10:36Speaker 1: director really hates men. Star Wars director has ties to
- 10:40Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton without respect we reject.
- 10:45Speaker 3: I'm very specific. It was very Hillary Clinton.
- 10:53Speaker 2: The thumbnail was very funny. I must say, I thought.
- 10:56Speaker 3: Really find it hilarious that feminist is now coincided with
- 11:00Speaker 3: I don't know, stopping honored this. I mean, I guess,
- 11:05Speaker 3: I mean technically yes, yeah, but it's a bad thing.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Yeah, question, trust me. I want to come back and
- 11:15Speaker 1: do a whole episode on this. I do not want
- 11:17Speaker 1: to because otherwise this episode is gonna be way too long.
- 11:19Speaker 1: But yes, I have a lot of thoughts about this.
- 11:22Speaker 1: I personally don't think Adam Driver is helping. I can't
- 11:25Speaker 1: tell if he's joking or not, but he's like, Wokeness
- 11:28Speaker 1: killed Han Solo Because every apparently everybody comes up to him,
- 11:31Speaker 1: it's like, why did you kill Han Solo?
- 11:33Speaker 2: He says, Wokeness killed Oh yeah.
- 11:35Speaker 3: That doesn't help when they misquote everything. So if they're
- 11:38Speaker 3: taking a quote that was not even reference to this movie,
- 11:41Speaker 3: and then she said it may not gonna be uncomfortable
- 11:44Speaker 3: because of what she does for this movie, which is
- 11:46Speaker 3: not true. They're going to take that quote and run
- 11:49Speaker 3: with it.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Oh, they were so happy to run with it. Oh
- 11:52Speaker 2: my gosh.
- 11:53Speaker 1: But it was really funny because when my friend said
- 11:55Speaker 1: that at the story I told at the top, I
- 11:57Speaker 1: immediately looked up, looked it up, and I was like,
- 11:59Speaker 1: that's what thought, That's exactly what I thought.
- 12:01Speaker 3: So only were you really wrong, but you're really like
- 12:05Speaker 3: telling on yourself.
- 12:07Speaker 2: Yes, and they don't know.
- 12:10Speaker 1: Either they don't know or willfully are misrepresenting it right.
- 12:14Speaker 1: And today, just today I saw a headline that they
- 12:17Speaker 1: are now they announced that the Mandalorian Grogu are getting
- 12:20Speaker 1: their own movie by Jean Favreau and Dave Filoni and
- 12:23Speaker 1: all of these same people are like good damage control.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Maybe they'll never make this movie at all, which does happen,
- 12:31Speaker 1: So it could be this movie never comes out, we'll.
- 12:34Speaker 3: See or they'll do the same thing where they ruin it.
- 12:36Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, that's true. And we did talk about
- 12:40Speaker 1: that with the Marvels about like with a huge company
- 12:44Speaker 1: like this, sometimes like the editing is out of the
- 12:46Speaker 1: director's control. Sometimes like pieces of it are out of
- 12:49Speaker 1: your control. And Star Wars notoriously like a look at
- 12:52Speaker 1: our episodes we did on the sequel trilogy with how
- 12:54Speaker 1: literally every movie changed the story completely from the last
- 12:58Speaker 1: one because of toxic fandom and the company like caving
- 13:02Speaker 1: into it. So you can have legitimate critiques on something
- 13:07Speaker 1: Lord knows. I have very I have some critiques on
- 13:09Speaker 1: Star Wars and Marvel stuff, but again, this movie hasn't
- 13:13Speaker 1: even come out yet, so can we stop. But I
- 13:16Speaker 1: hate that so much of these criticisms are tied up
- 13:18Speaker 1: in sexism and racism and what have you, and women
- 13:21Speaker 1: and people of color are punished more for a movie
- 13:23Speaker 1: that isn't perfect, which of course it won't be again,
- 13:26Speaker 1: especially if it's this huge company like Disney. Again, your
- 13:31Speaker 1: beautiful Darling film Imparta Strikes Back, which is my favorite,
- 13:34Speaker 1: was largely financed outside the studio, so it wasn't subject
- 13:37Speaker 1: to Disney, but now it is, and there's all of
- 13:41Speaker 1: these people like, well, we can't make these people.
- 13:43Speaker 2: Man, we can't do this. We can't do this, we
- 13:44Speaker 2: can do this, can't have nice things?
- 13:47Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know I talked about this before, but
- 13:49Speaker 1: I hate being in anywhere near the Vinn diagram of.
- 13:52Speaker 2: Of these people.
- 13:53Speaker 1: So I feel like I have to be more outspoken
- 13:56Speaker 1: about something that maybe I don't like that much either,
- 13:59Speaker 1: but I'm like, no, oh, I'm not going to be
- 14:00Speaker 1: on your side because you're gross.
- 14:03Speaker 3: You're not wrong, but I'm definitely not taking sides with
- 14:05Speaker 3: you exactly.
- 14:07Speaker 1: And I will defend things I don't like a Star
- 14:09Speaker 1: Wars universe. I absolutely will, because sometimes you just don't
- 14:12Speaker 1: like something but other people do and that's okay.
- 14:15Speaker 2: That's okay. Sometimes I like parts of it and not
- 14:18Speaker 2: all of it, and that's okay, Like, oh okay. That's
- 14:22Speaker 2: why being a fan is. Did you find the things
- 14:24Speaker 2: you like and you let people like what they like.
- 14:27Speaker 3: Yes.
- 14:28Speaker 1: So it's just like I feel annoyed because obviously for
- 14:33Speaker 1: a lot of reasons, but I feel annoyed because they're
- 14:36Speaker 1: already angry about something. It hasn't come out. They were
- 14:40Speaker 1: always going to say the same thing, but now I
- 14:44Speaker 1: feel like I won't even say fans because I won't
- 14:47Speaker 1: call them that, but like they'll say they have a
- 14:49Speaker 1: legitimate critique as a disguise to hide that they're actually
- 14:53Speaker 1: just being sexist, are racist, and they were never going
- 14:56Speaker 1: to like it in the first place. They were never
- 14:58Speaker 1: going to like it, and then they get angry when
- 15:01Speaker 1: they get called out on it because they point to
- 15:03Speaker 1: other people who maybe agree.
- 15:06Speaker 2: But not for the same terrible reasons.
- 15:09Speaker 1: It's just them, like they're using you for their bullshit
- 15:12Speaker 1: to justify how they are. Like that's why I hesitate.
- 15:18Speaker 1: That's why I've been so protective of some things. I
- 15:20Speaker 1: don't even like that much because.
- 15:21Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not gonna let you be this bad man.
- 15:24Speaker 1: I will not stand for it. It is.
- 15:29Speaker 2: And look, can I recommend fan fiction to you if
- 15:32Speaker 2: you don't like it. There's a old world. There are books,
- 15:36Speaker 2: you can read, tons of comics. There's so much out there.
- 15:40Speaker 2: You're fine.
- 15:42Speaker 1: You can have a headcanon. You keep it to yourself,
- 15:44Speaker 1: but it's beautiful.
- 15:45Speaker 2: I have fun.
- 15:47Speaker 3: It's great.
- 15:48Speaker 1: A bunch of people like me are able to do
- 15:52Speaker 1: that instead of being hateful and driving people off social media.
- 15:56Speaker 1: And I promise you we have more reason to be
- 15:58Speaker 1: angry than you do. So I'm tired of it.
- 16:02Speaker 2: And they are so emotional, and you know it.
- 16:08Speaker 1: Might actually be a good movie of this thing you
- 16:10Speaker 1: say you're a fan of, So maybe just wait and
- 16:13Speaker 1: see and be open minded about it. Just calm down,
- 16:17Speaker 1: and like, I'm somebody who get I get emotional about
- 16:20Speaker 1: fan things.
- 16:20Speaker 2: But I also know when it's like, all right, I
- 16:23Speaker 2: didn't like it wasn't for me. That's my right, that's it,
- 16:25Speaker 2: and you move on.
- 16:26Speaker 3: You don't collection if I have to watch every day.
- 16:29Speaker 2: Exactly moving on.
- 16:30Speaker 1: See see all right, well I'm looking forward to it. Yes,
- 16:39Speaker 1: and this has been like I honestly, and I feel
- 16:42Speaker 1: a little shamed about this. I didn't know all of
- 16:44Speaker 1: this stuff about obeyed Chanoi and this is amazing stuff
- 16:47Speaker 1: like some of those I think we should put in
- 16:49Speaker 1: our movies and our books, like absolutely anyway, Sorry, got
- 16:55Speaker 1: a little emotional.
- 16:55Speaker 2: I like it, but get them. I'm so annoyed by this. Well, listeners, if.
- 17:02Speaker 1: You have any thoughts about this, if you have any suggestions,
- 17:07Speaker 1: clearly I do. I'm going to go back and talk
- 17:09Speaker 1: about this war excited. You can email us any suggestions
- 17:14Speaker 1: for this segment. I didn't finish my sentence.
- 17:16Speaker 2: You can email.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Us step Media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
- 17:20Speaker 1: might us on Twitter at mom stuff Podcasts, or on
- 17:22Speaker 1: Instagram and TikTok and stuff. I never told you. We
- 17:25Speaker 1: do have a book you can get wherever you get
- 17:27Speaker 1: your books. We have a t paolog store you can
- 17:28Speaker 1: get some stuff there. We need to add some more
- 17:30Speaker 1: stuff to.
- 17:30Speaker 3: That st We do think it's not about some ideas
- 17:33Speaker 3: and we haven't done anything about it.
- 17:35Speaker 2: Yes, that's that's on my New Year's list.
- 17:39Speaker 1: So all right, Well, thanks it's always to our super
- 17:42Speaker 1: produced Christine or executive producer Maya and a contributor Joey.
- 17:45Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff on
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