On Closing Night, Hillary Clinton Reflects on a Rallying Cry 'Makers: Once and For All' explores the impact of the 1995 United Nations’ World Conference on Women

Written by Jenna Belhumeur

With the most high-profile guest of this year’s DOC NYC programming, a packed house at Thursday night’s screening of Makers: Once and For All eagerly awaited the arrival of presidential candidate and documentary subject Hillary Clinton.

While rain poured outside, audience members checked their umbrellas at the front desk of Chelsea’s SVA Theater. The Secret Service was also in attendance and did not allow umbrellas inside the theater.

At the start of the evening, CEO and Chairman of AOL Inc., Tim Armstrong, took the stage to introduce the night’s guest of honor.

“Leaders are not judged by their number of followers, leaders are judged by the leaders they create,” Armstrong said, in obvious reference to the impact Clinton has had on women worldwide. Then, amid a flurry of iPhones snapping photos, Hillary Clinton stepped up to the microphone.

Clinton spoke about the subject of the documentary: the United Nations’ World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing, China in 1995.

“You will get a sense, I hope, of both the excitement and the anxiety,” Clinton said.

As shown in the film, Clinton’s presence at the conference was both controversial and highly impactful. With 189 governments represented and women activist and leaders from around the world, Clinton – who was First Lady at the time –  felt the need to represent the United States’ own views on women’s rights at the conference.

Her speech, which stressed the idea that women’s rights and human rights are one and the same, is arguably still one of the most influential in the history of the women’s rights movement. From prostitution to dowry deaths, no topic proved off-limits in Clinton’s speech. Though critics doubted the impact of Clinton’s presence at the conference and whether she would hold China accountable for it’s own record on women’s rights, she shocked everyone by even highlighting the issues of forced sterilization and forced abortions, in obvious reference to China’s one-child policy.

Clinton powerfully declares in her speech, “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.”

It is interesting to note that at the time Clinton made the speech, however, she herself did not realize how revolutionary her words were and the effect they would have.

“’Women’s rights are human rights’ seemed like a very obvious thing to say!” an astonished Clinton remarks.

At the conclusion of Makers: Once and For All on Thursday night, Dyllan McGee, the film’s director and his family took the stage. Then, all the women in the crowd who had attended the 1995 conference in Beijing were asked to stand. About 15 women scattered throughout the crowded theater stood, many of whose faces were now instantly recognizable as prominent subjects in McGee’s film.

All smiled and beamed amid enthusiastic applause, reflective on the historic occasion they had been a part of that others could now understand as well.

Jenna Belhumeur is a recent graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and currently works within the video department at The Wall Street Journal. Her first documentary short, BACK, explores the experiences of an ex-prisoner reentering society after 40 years behind bars. The film premieres at this year’s DOC NYC festival. Follow her on Twitter @jenna_bel