Nike champions everything that matters. I don’t say that to applaud the brand entirely for its social conscience. There’s self-interest in its “goodness”. And Nike is spreading a lot of that “goodness” in new markets for the brand. Dove overstepped the mark. Is Nike getting close to it? I don’t know.
It’s just that Nike does really great work for good. And it’s a brand whose products promote good things. All is forgiven. Most is applauded.
This time, Nike has commissioned awarded young Prettybird director, Eloise King, to make a film that champions – and encourages – the power of women ahead of the Women’s World Cup. It’s a wonderful film, from its real women (with real jiggly bits) to its quietly spoken poem and its motto, We’ve Always Done It.
The featured artist is Belen Leroux. The poem was written – and performed – by Abondance Matanda, and the original music composition is by Asriel Hayes. The featured product is the FK FEnom Bra.
King commented, “From periods to mental health, girl’s health is something that affects half the planet and is still largely seen as a taboo subject. This film is set in the near future, where cultural and societal barriers have been re-configured and women are free to reimagine themselves. Harnessing the ultimate potential to transcend limitations; be it the social inequality, the stigma of wild women, instead embracing their strengths, to push the narrative beyond dreams fulfilled—into a new dimension of dreams yet to be.
“Presented in an electric vibrancy and grit through a series of honest and intimate close-up portraits woven together to show women in motion, claiming the inherent right power within us, to own what many women are denied, our birthright to love and listen to our bodies. Leaning into the nuance of how every female identifies with their body is unique, but can collectively represent something much more profound. The messages is whatever dimensions women want to embrace we can do that if women take care of ourselves.”
The film was inspired by the work of performance artist, Sagg Napoli, and Maya Deren’s passionate study of Voudou in Haiti, in which her gaze asserts, “Women as the divinity of the dream a goddess of love the muse of beauty… in a sense is the very principle by which man conceives and creates divinity…her arrival pervades the very air, all anxieties and urgencies vanish. The tempo of movements become more leisurely and tensions dissolve.”
“I wanted to make the piece to acknowledge that in challenging times our collective power as women is accessing freedom from within ourselves. It’s a future we can all own,” King added.
“The team behind this project were totally intersectional; black, people of colour, white and queer and non-binary, men and women, which reflects both my practice ethos and collaborative approach that balance can create better.”
