Malala Yousafzai on quest to use movies and television to influence “minds” and “perspectives.”
The 25-year-old aspires to create programmes with a wide range of content. In Variety’s #PowerOfWomen issue, Malala Yousafzai—the youngest Nobel laureate in history and an advocate for education—talks about “changing people’s minds and perspectives” through her own film and television production firm, Extracurricular.
The 25-year-old co-founder of the advocacy group Malala Fund stated in an interview with the publication: “When I fill out papers that ask for a profession, I usually struggle because I’m trying to figure out what my function is.”
Malala continued by saying she sees herself as both an activist and a storyteller.
Since I’ve been involved in activism for more than ten years, I’ve come to the conclusion that it shouldn’t be limited to the efforts of NGOs alone. “There’s also the element of changing people’s minds and perspectives, and that requires a little more work,” she said.
In 2021, Yousafzai secured a multiyear programming agreement with Apple TV+ through her production firm. Now that the earliest projects for her production firm are in the works, the deal’s benefits will start to become apparent.
In the conversation, the education activist discussed the stereotyped portrayal of non-white characters and the necessity for Hollywood to create a diversity of stories involving people of colour and broaden their audience beyond limiting them to particular communities.
Malala Yousafzai to use movies to influence “minds” and “perspectives”
“I identify as a woman, Muslim, Pashtun, Pakistani, and someone of colour. And I watched “Succession,” “Ted Lasso,” and “Severance,” where the protagonists are predominantly white men, she continued, adding that if people of colour can watch these shows, then “audiences should be able to watch shows that are made by people of colour, and produced and directed by people of colour, with people of colour in the lead.” That is doable, and I’m going to make it so.”
