THE EMPOWERMENT PROJECT: A Feel-Good Feminist Documentary

“What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?” poses the documentary The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things. 

Film director Sarah Moshman and her all-female film crew set out to inspire you to answer that question yourself, by creating a documentary highlighting positive and powerful female leaders and entrepreneurs across the USA across multiple practices and industries.

So, what did they do?

After raising more than $28,000 on Kickstarter, Moshman and crew set out on a trip of over 7,000 miles from Los Angeles to New York over the course of 30 days. The filmmakers interview women such as Katherine Darnstadt, an architect in Chicago, Admiral Michelle Howard, the first black female 4-star admiral of the U.S. Navy, and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Their plan was to steer the conversation to strong everyday women rather than the picture that the media has painted.

Getting to know the filmmakers

This road-trip style documentary has the crew turn the cameras onto themselves, documenting not just the amazing women they meet during the film but their own personal journeys. At times they feel emotional and beat themselves up after meeting some of the women, feeling inadequate and wishing they had done more.

But the crew, who you watch bond and become friends along the way, always help pick each other back up and remind themselves that they are great as they are. They often video blog their experiences and feelings between interviews, making the film more of a personal experience.

We are particularly invited into the life of director Sarah Moshman, as she interviews both her mother and mother-in-law about their lives and work/home balance, discussing the role of women and how little has changed between their generations.

It’s refreshing to watch a group of young women so positive about what they are doing, and uplifting each other as they go along. The women in this film are determined to make a change in their own way, and in their own fields.

There are a lot of similarities between this film and the 2011 documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom Miss Representation, which explores the portrayal of women in the media and how this has led to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence. They use similar interview styles, with animated graphics explaining and highlighting the statistics in each field.

However, whilst Miss Representation gets you angry, The Empowerment Project inspires you to do something with that frustration just as the women in the film have.

To Conclude

I don’t feel like The Empowerment Project says anything particularly thought-provoking or groundbreaking which hasn’t been covered previously by various articles and online content. It’s slightly dated, not really taking intersectionality into consideration when discussing the challenges faced by women.

However, the film is feel-good if not a bit cheesy, and sends a good message that feels like it should be watched by teenage girls still deciding what to do with their lives: to inspire them to make that leap and pursue their dreams.

What did you think of The Empowerment Project? Let us know in the comments below!

The Empowerment Project is available on VOD.