 Hi, everyone, if you can please close your phones. Hi, everyone, thank you so much for joining us. Dianne and I are on stage today because we've spent the last year and a half getting to know each other rather intimately. I've just finished making a documentary film on the life of DVF, which will be out in a few months. And along the way, we have developed this very special relationship and sharing some of the insights about our life with you here today. So as you know, Charmin is a very famous, very brave, and very serious documentary director. She made some extraordinary movies. At 29 years old, she did a movie on the children of the Taliban, where she herself looks like an Italian movie star. And she got to Oscar, she got Emmys, she's everything. So actually, I had this idea of getting Charmin to make a short documentary about all these extraordinary women who I help and who I give awards to, who need the more you can hear their story, the better it is. But at some point, we couldn't sell it to any network. And they kept on saying, we would like a documentary about you, me. And I said, well, that really was not what I had in mind. And then Charmin said, but you know what? Through you, we can talk about these women because it's how you open doors to other women. So she convinced me, and so she's been working on this movie for almost two years. It's going to be distributed by Disney Plus overseas and Ulu in America. And I have not seen the movie. I'm only the subject of the movie. I probably will not see the movie until it's finished and out. Because I kind of like going to the opening and telling people, I haven't seen it. I feel like I've learned so much from Deanne. And one of the things that I've really learned from her is that she's always had this courage to fight. And I don't know. For me, as a woman and from where I've come from, being able to fight and speak up and speak out has been so important, to have one's voice heard. And Deanne says something which deeply resonates with me is that be always true to yourself. You know? Well, I'm much older than Charmine and all of you, almost together. And so I have had a very, very full life. And I write my diary. And I keep on inventing myself. So the lucky thing about me is that from early, early on, I had a complicity with me. I would write my diary. I would do things. I talk to myself. Because I feel like I should trust myself first. Also, what I think is important to know is where I came from. My mother, 18 months before I was born, my mother was liberated from Auschwitz. She was in the concentration camp for 13 months. She weighed 29 kilos. She was a cadaver, a skeleton amongst ashes. And she really, I mean, her mother couldn't even believe that she came back. But she came back and her mother fed her little by little like a little bird. And within six months, she gained her normal weight, which was not a lot bigger. And then her fiancée came back from Switzerland. They got married. And the doctor said to them, you have to wait at least three years for the child. Because she won't make it. And the child will not be normal. And nine months later, I was born. And I guess I was not normal. And so basically the other day, it came to me as a flash. I was being interviewed. I was on a panel with Vital Voices, which is this organization that I'm on the board of, which is amazing about amazing women who do incredible things. And so there was the person who was interviewing. Then there was Nadia Murat, who is this extraordinary girl. She's a Yazidin. Her entire family was killed. She was raped. But she survived. And she survived. And when I met her, I gave her an award. But she barely spoke English. And she was really. Now I watch her on TV two weeks ago. She's gorgeous. She speaks perfect English. She got a PhD. Anyway. So this woman who was on the panel asked her, asked us, what is the most audacious thing you ever did? And of course, she had so much to say. I mean, she was raped. And her parents were killed. And her brother and sister. And I thought to myself, oh my god, what am I going to say? And then it came to me like that. The most audacious thing I did was to be born. And that really illustrates so much this honoring life that I carry the flag of life. And when you are a survivor of such kind, my birth was a triumph over misery. And that is a very special kind of ingredients that whatever. And that's where I draw strength from. Because I've been thinking about the work that I've done in my life. And my work focuses on incredible men and women and even children who are living amongst communities and places facing adversity and against all odds sort of rising through that. And we do live in dark times. These are very difficult times to find inspiration for humanity from. And recently, I was spending time with this incredible woman who has dedicated her life to ensuring that women have a voice. Her name is Tabasum Adnan. And she was sitting when I first met her, she was sitting in this room surrounded by women, sitting in the center holding court. And a woman was coming to her and asking her, what should I do about the property that my brother has taken away from me? What should I do about my neighbor who is fighting a domestic violence case? And she was just firing off these answers left, right, and center. And just to stand back and watch this woman in an area that is essentially controlled by men, but to take power, to have the courage to fight and say, no, I am here. And I will create my space. And I will make sure that the women around me also have that space. It's so powerful. In my life, I have drawn courage from these people who rise from extraordinary circumstances and are able to create change. You know, Tabasum, when she gathered this group of women, she told the men in the community, we will decide our own affairs. And she started getting these threats. Letters started arriving. A bullet came in a letter. And she said, none of this matters. Because if in every single house that we can get the message out that a woman can control her life, that we'll be able to start building a network. And that's what she's been able to do. So when I draw inspiration from the work that I've done, I sort of go back into the communities and look at how all of these women sort of went through their lives and draw inspiration from that. Yeah, exactly. And did you say true to yourself before? Yeah, about it. And so what I discovered, really, that the secret is really to be true to yourself. It's very hard to be true to yourself, because it means you have to be strict to yourself. You have to own your imperfection, your vulnerability. You have to face it and deal with it. But if you are true to yourself, whether it's you as a person, you as in work, you as a business, or you as a brand, if you are true to yourself, you remain free. Even if you're in jail, if you're true to yourself, you're free. But if you're not true to yourself, you're never free. Yeah, and I think, for me, the strength to survive has been about always asking, why not? I've had the most extraordinary sort of career as a filmmaker. From where I came from when I started my career, there was barely any women who were documentary filmmakers. And to be able to tell the kind of stories that I've been able to tell and win the accolades, I've always wondered how and what and next. And some mornings I would wake up, because I, for some of you who know my work, challenge misogyny, challenge stereotypes, shake sort of the rule of law. And not just in my home country of Pakistan, I've made films around the world which have sort of challenged all of that. How do you, there's a lot of backlash that comes with that, right? I would wake up some mornings and I would read things about myself and I'd be like, that's me? My god, I didn't know I was saying that or doing that. And that's all part of the armor of sort of, you sort of wear that. And even in the darkest times when you have threats against your life, which I've had plenty of, and a lot of people sort of raging and ranting about my work and who I am as a person and the kind of work that I do, finding that inner voice, as Dianne has said, and holding on to that inner voice and being true to yourself and saying that it doesn't matter what hate comes my way, it doesn't matter. But even in the darkest times, I have to know and I have to be able to sleep with myself and know that I am telling the truth. Because even at the very start of my career, when I was just 17 years old, my father sort of mantra that had said to me that if you speak the truth, I will stand with you and so will the world. And knowing that telling the truth isn't easy. Knowing that it comes with a whole host of backlash that comes your way, I've always known that speaking the truth is important. And so having the strength to survive for me is to be able to light the path, is to be able to know that in the darkness, if I take two or three steps towards light, there will be others that will follow in my footsteps. And also, we are really, first of all, we do not choose who we are born into. You do not choose your parents. You do not choose your collective surroundings. You really not in charge of your destiny. But what we are in charge of is navigating our destiny and doing the best we can, if it's raining, if it's beautiful, taking advantage of it, and designing the navigation of our destiny. And I keep on inventing, but again, the secret is being able to solitude and silence are the most valuable things for me. If I need solitude, I need to be alone. I need to go on a walk. That's why I like to do sports alone. I like to walk or I like to swim. I don't like social sport because I use them to make emptiness. And when the emptiness of the corridor, then you can focus on your intention. And intention is a very important word because you focus on the intentions, the consequences of the intentions, and where you want to go. My Tai Chi teacher told me, he was a great Tai Chi master, and he said, if you focus on your strengths, you get hurt. If you focus on your energy, you procrastinate. I don't really understand that. But if you focus on your intention, you get the energy and the power. And so intention is the word that I learned only a few years ago, but it's very important. And another word that I've never used until now is manifest. Because in French, the word manifest is like a demonstration. It's not the same. But in English, to manifest is to make it happen. And I was talking on a panel for business women, and they were all business, you know, CEO, chief of, what is CEO? Chief executive officer. OK. And I said, well, I'm really not the CEO. But I am a chief manifesto. And when I say that, I surprise myself. And I said yes, because I focus, and then I have a vision, and then I manifest it. And it's just a beautiful word to manifest. But with all of that, it is most important to keep humility, not to believe your own bullshit, and to be friends with yourself, to support yourself, to do all of that, but also to be able to criticize yourself. In the last year and a half that I've spent with Deanne sort of documenting her life. Even when we're not together, she's editing me. I hear her voice all the time. You know, we were talking about intention and manifestation. Deanne and I come from two very different worlds, right? And yet we don't. We have had sort of, as we began to talk about the things that we've done in our life in very different ways, we found that there was so much synergy. And one day after spending a lot of time with her and sort of asking her all of these questions, her deepest darkest secrets and these intimate moments. And trying to make me emotional. Why can't I make you emotional? I said, because I'm not. One of the things that I learned was that I'm learning so much about my own life by spending time with her, and that's... No, but what you said to me on the phone is, because when you interview people about me, that's when you... Yes, because the thing is that... So as women who are navigating this world, you know, standing up strong sort of, there's so much about us and ourselves that we hold, guarded, and don't talk about, don't share. You know, how do we navigate relationships? How do we navigate children? How do we navigate traveling around the world? How do we navigate the backlash that comes from the media? All of those kind of sort of conversations as women as we hold, how do I navigate this brand-new world that I find myself in as I take steps into the film world and doing bigger projects? And in doing the interviews, not just with Deanne, but also with all the people that she has spent her life with, I've begun to learn about, oh, this is how I should be navigating. And so from that has grown this idea that women learning from each other, you know, sort of learning from the experiences and being inspired by that. And there is this path that every woman has walked, okay, that we don't need to reinvent, that we learn from, that we can take from and grow from that as well. And so in... Because in the meantime, by the way, she didn't tell you, but while she's editing and interviewing, while she's doing a movie about me, which is very unusual for her, you know, she takes this big subject and now she's doing a movie about me. And while that was happening, she got hired to direct the next Star Wars, okay? So she didn't tell you that. So all of a sudden, she is this Pakistani woman who is directing Star Wars. You can imagine what that, so it's a lot of things for her to adapt to because it's fiction, because it's very male, very masculine, and all of that. So she's beginning, you know, while they're writing the script, thank God, there was the strike because the strike gave me, gave her time to focus more on me. And anyway, so that's why... I think that's where she needed, while she was doing this movie on this woman who keeps on inventing herself who, you know, I mean, I have everything in my life, right? Everything. I'm a daughter of a survivor. I became a princess. I lived an American dream. I had cancer. Everything, give me a subject, I've had it. So it's a mishmash of everything. So with her sewing all of this together, at a time that she was taking a new challenge and it was a different challenge because when she does her documentary, she is in charge, right? I mean, completely in charge. I mean, she, it's a subject that she choose. It's the way she wants to choose. All of a sudden, she's doing a big, huge franchise for Disney. And, you know, no matter how much she wants to be in charge, she's not. I think it's the leadership, right? It's seeing how you open doors for others, what you learn and move on. And Dionne's entire life has been about a leadership to inspire. And I've been taking a page from that book, like what is going to be the legacy of, will I be the first woman who was somewhere? Will I be the first woman from my home country who's won two Academy Awards? Will I be the first person who, as a woman who's, you know, sort of directing a big franchise like this? Or will you be the first director that became president? Oh, well. But, and it's like, how do we open doors for others? And in my own work, what I've seen is that I've set up this film fund now that is funding and mentoring young female filmmakers not only from my home country, but sort of how do we make sure that door that we have left open has many people that are walking through it. Last year, we had 20 young filmmakers that we funded. They will go on to be beacons of light in the communities that they work. And they will be leaders who will inspire others to walk in their footsteps. You know, just like sort of all of the awards that Dionne, you have been giving and the connections that you have been making with people. Because one of the most beautiful things that Dionne does is she connects one person every day to another person who doesn't know that person. So it's like making connection. And I advise you to do this. This is, these are the steps. Every morning, every morning, you say, you introduce one person to a person they would have never had the opportunity to meet. All of you can do that because all of you have a magic wand. And to use your magic wand, first of all, is incredibly fulfilling. But the more you use your magic wand, the more powerful your magic wand is. And even though you don't use a magic wand on yourself, by using it on others, it comes back to you as a boomerang. So I do that, I do more than one miracle a day. Because then you get really into it and then it's very challenging and it's very fun. And sometimes I go out of my way and of course with the phone, you could do that silently. You know, you don't have to leave a message, you don't have to speak. All you have to do is write very perfectly why you introduce, where do you, you know, you make magic. And anyway, sometimes I go out of my way to do that. And I say, why am I doing that? But it becomes like a game. And I really advise you to do that because it's really fun. You know how we met? Okay, so there is an, in America, there's a glamour award, a glamour magazine. Of course, magazine doesn't exist anymore, but at the time it was a big magazine. And they give awards every year and I got one award. And the year after, they asked me to present it. Will you present an award to someone? And I said, yes. And so I was presenting the award to this beautiful young Pakistani director who had just won an Academy Award for her movie, Saving Face, which is a movie about a girl who was attacked with acid. Anyway, so I go to Carnegie Hall and I go on stage and blah, blah, blah. I do the introduction. She comes in, I give her the award. And then she invites, what's her name again? Zakhia. She invites Zakhia, the victim of the acid thing. She invites her on stage. So we are the three of us on stage, blah, blah, blah. This was at Carnegie Hall, which is an old theater in New York City. And usually when you finish doing this award, you go to the press room, right? And then the present, the presenter, the, so the three of us were supposed to go and do press. And in Carnegie Hall, the press room, you have to take the elevator. So I am somebody who have a relationship with my mirror. So anytime I go in an elevator, I automatically prepare myself because I know I'm gonna encounter a mirror, right? But this time I was going with the two of them and I was going with this woman who had been attacked by acid. And I thought to myself, don't look at yourself in the mirror, me, I'm talking to myself. Don't look at yourself in the mirror, you know, for respect. We walk in the elevator and Zakhia, she, and she looks, she's so proud, she owns it, you know? She walks into the elevator and stares at herself in the mirror with pride because she had been nicely made up. And yes, of course, she had been, you know, she, you could see that she was scarred, but her attitude and her confidence and her dignity was overwhelming. And it was such a lesson to me, you know, that, that, you know, she did, she had the relationship with her and she was proud of being her. And I wrote that in my book actually. That's how we met. Yeah, and, and I think that one of the things that I'm gonna sort of leave you guys with is the leadership to inspire for me has been about the amplification of the voices of the so many of those who are living in these communities. My last story to share is, a few months ago, I visited a village. Every house outside that village had this sign that said, this house is free of domestic violence. The entire village. Where was that? This is in, in, in, in a small town in Punjab, in Pakistan. Three women in that village got together one day and decided that we are going to take the 60 houses that we have over here. That's such a good idea. Every single house here is going to be free of domestic violence. They would, first they started counseling the women. The women said to them, without the men, we can't. Then they got the men together and they started speaking to the men step by step by step, encouraging them to see the women as their partners. Not someone who should be crushed. That's a great idea. Someone who should be elevated. And these, and one by one. Then the first woman put a plaque outside a house. This house is free of domestic violence. A second one, a third one. And I think that is such a good idea. Peace through the village. Every house has this sign outside. That to me is, that to me is, is the leadership to inspire. That is a woman's determination. Has changed the life of so many in that village. And so when we talk about leadership, there is so much leadership on so many different levels. But that's the kind of leadership that inspires us to do the work that we do. That's great. That is a fantastic idea. I'm gonna steal that idea. I mean, it's so good because women, I always say, women are about solution and seduction, right? Because the most submissive woman in the world, there is a fire in the house, she takes over. She takes the jewelry, she takes the children off the door, right? People laugh that I always mentioned the jewelry before the children. But that's because the children can walk and the jewelry can't walk. But anyway, so women really have always a solution. And women have seduction. And seduction is not only about showing your legs, even though if you want to, you can. But seduction is about selling the solutions in a way that you incorporate, like that woman did with the violence. The solution was that, and she made the man say it. So that's where the seduction enters, you know? You have the solution, you sell the solution, making belief that the others, it's their idea. We're gonna open it up for some questions, I believe. No question? Ooh. Yeah? Talk about my wrap dress. Okay, so I did not know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be. And I wanted to be a woman in charge, which means that I wanted to be able to pay my bills. I wanted to be able to have a man's life in a woman's body. And when you start life, you don't know where unless you have absolutely a real, you know, you want to be a surgeon, you want to be a pianist or even a filmmaker, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I liked fashion, and so my first job was, I was a photographer, first agent assistant. And that, well, anyway, I can't tell you, we don't have enough time for the whole story, but you can read my book, The Woman I Wanted to Be. You can even listen to it unaudible, and it's my voice. So you can get the long story. Anyway, so this dress, I ended up working in a factory in Italy. This man, he was a printer, he used to print scarves, so I learned everything about prints. And then miraculously, whatever he invented, this jersey, the jersey became a little t-shirt, became a dress, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the wrap dress made me the success that I had. I was only 26 years old, and I had moved to America. I lived an American dream. I mean, I was on the cover of every magazine. I was very first entrepreneur, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I created this wrap dress, which is still selling today. So it's never happened to a dress ever before to sell for 50 years. This year, we celebrate the 50 years. And even if you go in a vintage shop, you may buy a vintage wrap dress that has already been worn by three generations. That's pretty good. And they still hold on. So yes, I created this wrap dress. But truly, it's the wrap dress that created me. Because wrap dress gave me my confidence, my financial independence, but my confidence. Because I became so confident. And because it was a little dress, I was sharing my confidence in fitting rooms and working with women. And so it's the wrap dress. I mean, I personally almost never. I mean, I didn't wear it that much because I never thought my waist was tiny. So I wore my clothes all the time. But that dress was a very fortunate accident that somehow became a symbol for women liberation. Because it was very, a woman once told me, it's the dress that the guys like, and their mothers don't mind. So it means that it's sexy enough, but proper enough too. And it's a dress that, you know, I mean, and after the actress, when she introduced me to her mother, her mother said, you know, I'm going to tell you something she doesn't know. She was conceived in a wrap dress. I think we are done with time. Thank you so much, everyone. And I hope you will continue and watch Deanne's film and learn more about her life. Thank you. And more important, live and design your own life step after step after step. I am 77 years old. I am in the winter of my life. And I keep on inventing it. And I will until the very last moment. So you are in charge of yourself. You're in charge of your destiny. Navigate it with kindness and generosity, but help yourself. Yeah. Thank you.