productioninterview
She/her/us
Her
Universal issues and themes such as power, marriage, beauty are seen through the eyes of Asian women in a new locally filmed series, Her, which unites different experiences and perspectives under a shelter of common ground. “We don’t need to be ‘empowered’,” says DW’s Petra Schneider ahead of the series May 2021 release. “We need to tell our stories”. “There are times in your life as a woman where, no matter where we are,
across the region, “we went looking for common ground, topics that are
we face the same issues as women everywhere. Power. Beauty. Relation-
local but can be appreciated across the region,” Schneider says.
ships... We went looking for universal themes that, no matter how different
In addition to another local series Unseen, which looks at environmental
our situations, perspectives or experiences, tie us all together,” says DW’s
issues in Asia, DW’s multi-country brainstorming sessions emerged with a
distribution director, Petra Schneider, ahead of the premiere of the Ger-
show that asks woman in Asia to talk about their experiences and per-
man broadcaster’s six-part Asian series Her.
spectives on common issues. “We believe that all women have the same
Her airs on multiple platforms across the region from mid-May this year,
events in their lives, but different experiences,” Schneider says.
including TVB’s myTV Super in Hong Kong; Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom;
DW, which has been operating in Asia for more than two decades, then
multiple platforms in Indonesia, including MaxStream, Vidio, Genflix and
created a pilot as a reference point, and commissioned the episodes from
MNC’s VisionPlus; and Vietnam’s FPT, among others.
local filmmakers, as well as DW’s bureau in Taipei for the Taiwan episode.
The series covers Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, along with DW’s South Asia strongholds of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Each episode of Her combines three women from different parts of Asia with different backgrounds talking about the same issue or event. The
All filming was done by local crews and production houses, including
broad search for stories took the team from a same-sex-mixed-nationality
the Kuala Lumpur-based Pik Film, which did the Malaysia and Indonesia
couple living in Taiwan, where gay marriage is legal but their union is not
episodes. DW executive produced and co-ordinated the stories, and
because one half of the couple is Malaysian; to a polygamous marriage
post-production was completed in-house in Germany.
in Malaysia; and a lone female professional baseball umpire who found
A second season is in the works, with enhanced production tech, including the use of drones. The final number of episodes is still in discussion.
herself on the field with no appropriate protective gear... until some was developed especially for her.
A couple of years in the making, Her is part of DW’s long-standing com-
Nothing in the Her bible talks specifically about “empowering women”,
mitment to local relevance underpinned by its public broadcast mandate.
Schneider says. “We don’t need to ‘empower’,” she says. “We need to tell
In a bid to tap demand for local/vernacular content that would work
10
our stories.”
contentasia may 2021