by Thinus Ferreira
IMPACT with Gal Gadot is a short-form documentary series from National Geographic about young women with 6 inspiring stories that are bundled together into a 120-minute documentary feature that will be broadcast on the channel on Sunday 27 June at 21:00.
With Gal Gadot, known for her film role of Women Woman, and Vanessa Roth as two of the executive producers, the 6 shorts now comprising one composite film, it follows the stories of young women making a big impact in their various communities in which they face a range of things like gang violence, water contamination, environmental issues, discrimination, and homelessness.
The young women live in Brazil, Puerto Rico, in the United States in Michigan, California, Louisiana and Tennessee.
"There are endless stories to tell, but among
the endless stories that we can tell, there are the stories that are, you know,
more extraordinary," said Gal Gadot when she spoke with journalists in February during a National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) press conference at this year's Television Critics' Association (TCA) press tour.
"I think that with
all these women, what we can see, is that all of them come from difficult
circumstances - whether it’s violence,
poverty, trauma, discrimination or natural disasters - and yet, it fuels them."
"It gives them more power to dare, to dream,
to change, to speak up and to really make a change in their communities. I don't know - to be honest - many women with
this extent of an impact by the actions that they do, are selflessness and
are not about themselves, but purely about the community. I have to say that I myself am so inspired
by them," said Gal Gadot.
"I'm so inspired by the fact that by the actions that they
have, it is such a ripple effect that it’s just, you know, it’s huge. It’s incredible."
Vanessa Roth said "we really trusted the women to tell us what's important to them".
"One of the criteria in choosing the women that
we chose was how really actually relatable all the women are and to really show
how impactful something can be that any of us can do if we actually reach for
it and try for it.
Gal Gadot said that for IMPACT "a key thing for us was to make sure that all of these women
had a true impact in their community - it is something that is
changing the lives of others."
"And, I
know about myself, growing up thinking: How can I change the world? How can I do such a thing? I’m
just one person. And when you see all
these women together, and in each of the stories on their own, you realize that
you can make a change."
"After I’ve done Wonder Woman I felt like I had
such a big reach to people, and I just wanted to do something good, and I want
to use my reach and my platforms to get to as many people and shed light on
these amazing, incredible women’s stories."
"So maybe ignite something in them and create a movement of people that
just want to do good to the world. But
I’m very, very lucky and grateful for being able to have this opportunity to do
this."
Vanessa Roth said that "one of the things also about the series is that the idea of obstacles or
challenges really come in various forms, and we really look into
different themes like home and representation."
"In the episode that we have in California
it’s about a young woman who lost her sister, her twin sister to Covid, and
it’s about healing, and it’s about how she turned her own grief, where she
could have gone and isolated herself, instead, she turned her own grief to
reaching out to help others through surf therapy and through healing."
"I think that the thing that’s really, to me, special about the
whole series and all the women that we have in it, is that whatever their obstacle or
challenge has been, what the commonality of all of it is, is that the women chose to
do something in that moment."
Women of wonder
Gal Gadot said the various young women are her "women of wonder".
"All of these women are just incredible, and
they are the real heroes. I keep on
calling them my Women of Wonder, because they are the true heroes"
"I go to set and I get dressed and I get my
costume and sword and everything, and I fight but it's make-believe. They are actually
there on the ground, you know, sweating and doing all they can to really make
the world a better place."
"I feel like we
live in such, especially, this past year, has been so dark and difficult and
challenging everywhere to all of us. No matter what you watch over the news - it’s just so hard and heavy and we wanted to balance it and bring
something good to the world."
"I think that it’s so important that as much as
we talk about facts and news and politics and all of this stuff, it’s so
important to talk about the people, the community, what they do together, how
they bring people together to make a difference, to really make a change."
"My dream and my vision are
really to create this amazing movement of people that can say, 'Hey, I can do
it, too. If she can do it, I can do it,
too.' I want to make this
thing something that would bring such a positive energy and change to the world
because the power - and it sounds like cliché, but I’m talking from the bottom
of my heart - we all have the power. We’re the people."
"We’re all one. We’re all dealing with different problems and
we’re the ones that can immediately help each other."
