I’ve just touched down from Miami after a pretty knackering couple of weeks filming, and, as per usual, we’ve got a busy day ahead here at Zandland. Because at the exact moment I’m posting this, we’ve just released our second documentary looking into the world of trad wives! The link is below. Please watch it, share it with every single person you’ve ever met, discuss it in the comments. We appreciate all the help we can get in the first few minutes to get the algorithm to pay attention.
This one is a bit different
The first film followed one trad wife in America. This one is all about trying to bridge divides, like we do in a lot of our work.
On one side is Laura Zachary, who runs the UK’s only trad wife academy, a course that teaches women how to be the perfect traditional wife for up to $16,000. She married her husband Zion (a right-wing influencer some of you will recognise from our echo chambers film) a week after they met on a podcast, and she describes herself as an anti-feminist. She believes a wife’s job is to bring peace to her husband, she preps his porridge pots the night before, and she told me she’d be fine if a politician took away her right to vote. Interestingly, a few years ago she ran her own business as a tarot reader, before what she describes as an encounter with Jesus changed everything. Whatever you make of her, she’s a pretty fascinating person.
On the other side is Sabina Trojanova, a feminist content creator who posts as Girl Vs Globe, and who has some fairly strong thoughts about trad wife influencers. Her view, roughly, is that every single Trad Wife is directly benefiting from the movement they say they want to get rid of.
So I accompanied Sabina as she spent the day at the academy, in Laura’s actual house, doing Laura’s course, so that two women who believe the exact opposite of each other about what being a woman means could actually sit at the same table and talk it through, rather than shouting past each other online.
It’s a fascinating look at two radically competing ideas of what being a woman means in today’s society. Whether they find any understanding at all, you’ll have to watch, but in typical clickbait fashion, I’ll say it didn’t go how I expected.
And if you’ve enjoyed these two films, good news, there’s one more in the pipeline. We just filmed ANOTHER doc in this space while we were in Miami. Turns out there’s actually a lot to cover in this arena. More on that soon.
The trip was a bit nuts
We spent a night in America’s oldest jail, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, literally in cells next to people facing murder charges. I’ll be honest and say it was one of the worst nights of my life, but it was a valuable experience, and it’s going to make a film that’ll be very illuminative. We also filmed in a jail where the doors don’t lock. Yet another crazy experience. And in Miami we filmed what I think may be our best documentary yet.
Zandland shoots are fast paced and we really go with the flow. We’re always trying to catch real life happening on camera, I’m always trying to walk in someone else’s shoes, and I’m always trying to challenge the way people think, including my own. That means they’re also super intense and tiring though, so I’m happy to be spending a few days with my family now, ahead of flying out to South Africa at the end of this week for another shoot. The grind never stops.
Some good news
Two of our docs have been nominated for Grierson Awards, which are the UK’s leading documentary awards and it means a lot to us.
Inside Gooning is up for Best Digital Documentary, where we’re the only independent YouTube channel on the list. Every other film in that category is backed by a major TV company, whereas ours was self-funded and made for our own YouTube channel. A slightly mad idea about an internet subculture is now on a Grierson shortlist next to the biggest broadcasters in the country, which is more or less the entire Zandland bet in one line.
And Breaking Ranks, fresh from winning Best Documentary at the Edinburgh TV Awards, is up for Best Current Affairs Documentary, alongside films from the BBC and HBO.
Both films are on our YouTube right now if you’ve not seen them.
And one more thing
For those who don’t know, my wife and I are actually having another baby at the start of next month. So between the jail, Miami, South Africa and a newborn, this may just be the craziest few weeks of my life so far. But we’re hanging in there.
Thanks as always for watching and reading, Zandlanders. Let me know if you like the latest film, and speak soon.
Ben Z