Director Nanette Burstein (The Kid Stays In The Picture) spent an astonishing 35 hours interviewing the most influential woman in American politics, Hillary Clinton, for a candid portrait of a life and career in the public eye.
Going back to her childhood in Illinois and education at Yale Law School, Hillary covers plenty of ground, including the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and Clinton’s time as Senator of New York, First Lady and Secretary of State, leading up to her being the first female presidential nominee of her country. The series also features interviews with husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, former President Barack Obama and many more.
With access to behind-the-scenes footage of Clinton’s run to the 2016 presidential election, we see how close she came to defeating Donald Trump at the final hurdle.
Hillary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Berlinale in February.
Four-part series Hillary airs weekly on SBS at 8.30pm from Wednesday 16 September. All four episodes are now streaming . Watch episode 1:
What the critics are saying
‘There is a melancholy fascination to Nanette Burstein’s sympathetic and respectful documentary interview with the enduringly opaque Hillary Rodham Clinton. … She speaks about the decades of misogynist abuse that she has had to absorb, mostly in an era when you had to toughen up and never admit to being hurt.’
‘I wanted to smash a window after some scenes, and take a shower after others. This is a binge that demands many glasses of wine and a long walk in the morning to clear the head. … But the core of the series is Burstein’s fresh sit-down with Hillary herself, who emerges in both conversation and candid footage as someone who’s looser and warmer than even her fans might suspect.’
‘… where Hillary stands out is how it finds in Clinton’s early years the foreshadowing of all the attacks she would face in 2008 and 2016 – not just flat-out sexism, but the charges of inauthenticity that connected to her learned defence mechanisms against being too much herself.’
‘Hillary doesn’t disguise itself as some sort of balanced expose, as if such a thing even exists. It sets out, and succeeds, in telling the motivating, painful and redemptive story of a polarising figure who has generated backlash and excitement in equal measure.’
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