Andrea Ureno – A Girl Can Change The World
We had the opportunity to interview Andrea Ureno, the producer, director, and writer of A Girl Can Change The World which is an official selection at the Utah Film Festival.
Six high school girls and one inquiring little sister, ages 12 – 15, friends and classmates, joined with documentarian Andrea Ureno, for an exploration of what it looks like to fight for women’s rights in todays America. Along the way they learn what it really takes to change the world, one girl at a time. This 27 min film features never before seen interviews with Veteran Feminists Zoe Nicholson and Carol King contributing their lived experience on the frontlines of feminism. Living proof that a girl really can change the world.
What was the inspiration to make A Girl Can Change The World?
The inspiration for the film, a girl can change the world, was the renewed invigoration to pass the ERA and compelling footage I had from the filming of my unfinished feature Documentary, An American Housewife, and the documentary of my daughter’s 8th grade group thesis project. I put aside An American Housewife to make this short. I didn’t realize what this would grow into.
From idea to completion, how did A Girl Can Change The World change?
This project changed tremendously through all the steps. Since I saw a need and was going to use footage I had on other projects, I had to go through writing the project by reviewing the footage I had in the editing room. In the forefront, this was always going to focus on young girls while including women in partnership, so I tried different ideas. It also came down to what archival footage that I could get permission to use. Every version I completed, I saw that it was missing something: the girls. Due to a busy school year during Covid, I had to wait to find the right location to interview with a professional journalist. I was quite inspired by their answers. We committed to working with girls on the project in all aspects. It took quite a bit of time and effort to make something different but very special. Based on the subject matter, wonderful post production industry professionals joined the effort. With each of these steps, it took quite a bit of time but this film was completed when it needed to be. This ended up being something bigger than what I first imagined.
What was the biggest challenge in getting A Girl Can Change The World made?
Three things:
- Creative ways to find funding or inspire professionals to join your project. In these cases, it adds time to your deadline.
- When you allow the story to tell itself vs writing it in advance, it takes you on an adventure. You have to be willing to spend a lot of time going through footage over and over.
- Working with girls on all aspects of the production.
What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?
Equal Rights Amendment needs to be in the forefront until it is passed. Young American girls know exactly what is going on and being told to them by society. It is important to see films like this where their voices are bold and unapologetic. I loved the idea that we used random, average American girls so others watching them can relate to them and the pop-culture of America.
If you could have a do over with your film is there anything that you would have done differently? If so, what would you change?
Yes, there are things I would have done differently. Even though, I had to make this film and had already footage of ours that I was going to use, I should have thought of this as archival footage and went back to square one to do more pre-production. Because I thought of this project had already started and filming in the can, I followed a completely creative process and jumped to post production.
What do you have in the works?
I think it is very important to follow through during the festival circuit and the distribution of this project. I see many filmmakers jump into something else and let it go off on its own. I am using this film to learn how the film industry has changed to be in more festivals and learn how to best distribute this so more girls and women can see this film. I also am working on the website to make it engaging for girls after the film is done: where they have a sacred place to share their ideas.
My goal is to honor, encourage, inspire and empower women and girls. This is a film that will continue to move audiences to action in their own lives and will ultimately change the world.
