Gretchen Ho starts own production outfit with Margielyn Didal docu as first offering

In 2012, on her final playing year in the UAAP, former star athlete-turned-journo Gretchen Ho told The STAR of her dream to do sports hosting. Fast forward to 12 years later, she’s not just hosting her own show, but she has her production company, Woman In Action (WIA) Studios, with a documentary on first Filipino Olympian skateboarder Margielyn Didal as maiden offering.

Three months in the making, “Woman In Action: Beyond the Board” centers on the Cebuano’s recovery period after sustaining an injury — distal fibular fracture with dislocation — during a 2021 competition in Brazil and its impact on her burgeoning career as world-class athlete. Gretchen followed Margielyn from Dubai for the qualifying round for Paris Olympics, to Baler, where there’s a new skate park for training, and to Cebu, where it all started for her in the world of skateboarding.

Gretchen initially wanted to do a series on Olympians before deciding to focus on the skateboarder’s aspirational and inspirational story. “Imagine, she came from nothing, then nakarating siya dun, and in mapping that out, parang how is it possible? How are you able to do that? Tapos babae ka pa.”

After Margielyn experienced a personal setback, Gretchen said that nobody in the sports media knew the story behind her recovery.

“We knew she got injured and then there’s a big blank. What happened after? ‘Di ba nagko-compete siya abroad? But walang nakakaalam? So, what really happened?” she said.

Her docu also delves into Margielyn’s struggles in trying to embrace competitive sports. “We know that skateboarding is more artistic, more freestyle, but now she’s forced to train as a competitive, professional athlete because skateboarding is already in the Olympics.”

TV host Gretchen Ho (left) with Margielyn during the premiere screening.

Margielyn’s style is also her strength, pointed out Gretchen. “She’s very much herself so imagine having that attitude and getting used to that and now being told na ‘hindi, kailangan mo ng schedule, kailangan mo gawin to, kailangan mag-therapy.’ Parang malaking adjustment yun together with the lack of facilities here which affected her continuous training.”

What helped the filming experience was the fact that she has been following Margielyn after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. “I remember that time, grabe, I mean, crowd favorite siya, ang daming nag-flock sa page niya na fans — Brazilians, Japanese, mga international (fans), even (skateboarding icon) Tony Hawk. Parang mahal na mahal siya kasi sa personality niya. Nandun na siya eh, pwede pa i-push, then bigla kang oh my gosh (injured),” Gretchen recalled.

And what surprised her the most about the athlete was that while she could come across as this happy-go-lucky person who liked to joke around, she’s been fighting for support for the sport.

“She’s had to take care (of them) and being the most successful of them (the skateboarding community), siya yung nag-aalaga dun sa Philippine team and not just them, but also the coaches.

“She’s a fighter for sure, and for her to go at it again despite the struggles kasi pwede naman na siyang maging kuntento pero kita mo naman nilaban. The reality of sport, it’s not always that you’re going to perform well, you’ll fall down, you get injured, you’re not going to have all the support that you need. But how are you going to deal with that and what kind of character do you have?”

Doing a sports docu is obviously close to her heart. “I come from the world of sports so it’s very natural to me to give back to where I came from. And because I’m trying to learn long-form documentary, I understand sports very well so I’m quite confident with the way I will tell the story.”

After Margielyn, she hopes to do a docu on Hidilyn Diaz, the first and only Filipino (so far) who has given the Philippines an Olympic gold.

“I don’t think her story is finished. If I can be able to do something like this for her, it would be an honor to do that,” Gretchen said, adding that she’d like to know what’s next for the weightlifter.

“That’s one of the things I learned as an athlete. Isang problema ng mga athlete, after their professional careers, yun ang pinaka-worry, like what do I do now? What do I make of myself? What career do I have? The long-term planning for us, athletes, and life after the sport, it’s established, so people are trying to figure their way into that. Others go into politics, others into showbiz.

“May isa pang daan pala, which is legacy building. You can give back to the young ones, train them. Yun ang ginagawa ngayon ni Hidilyn, EJ Obiena and even Margie, makikita mo… may ganung effort to pass it on so nakaka-encourage and it’s the challenge for storytellers like me, like you to bring that to audiences.”

For Gretchen, getting to this point — having her own production company — was also unexpected and unplanned. “It is certainly a good surprise because we’re coming off a full season of ‘Woman in Action,’ that’s my first season of producing my own show with Cignal TV. And then now, this one, is the first production under WIA Specials. Sa sarili ko na.”

She had her first taste of producing shows when she served as line producer for her travel, documentary and public service program in “Woman In Action” that premiered in 2022. “I would get people actually syempre from ABS-CBN because the network was shut down, marami tayong mga Kapamilya nawalan ng trabaho so sila din yung mga kinukuha ko, ang mga katrabaho ko noon sa ABS.

“Then with Cignal, parang yung team nila inside is limited so they allow line production. So they entrusted to me (the job) of producing my own work with their support. Tapos yung production team ko na yon, ginawa kong formal, in-incorporate ko to Woman In Action Studios.”

After the first season of “Woman In Action,” she particularly recalled how people were coming to them asking to produce an “episode of this and that.”

She went on to set up their infrastructure and then partnered with Red Bull for this docu. “Red Bull is a very good brand but they are also known for alternative content,” Gretchen explained.

“They’re not hard sell, they will not impose on you what they want, they’re really more about creative expression and helping you succeed. So in a sense, Red Bull gave us wings (to borrow their tag line) for our production. I’m so lucky also. I mean for us to get the nod of an international group, it means a lot to us.”

As for her transition to having her own production company, Gretchen described it as “mahirap na masaya.”

“Because you have creative freedom to execute what you want, you get to invest and get to see what kind of story you want to tell, and also get to partner with different people to make visions happen. So even if it’s difficult and we’re losing sleep over it, we’re on the same page naman. Talagang hindi kami papayag na mag-release, in our eyes, a subpar production.

“I love cultivating the culture in our team that we can be free to critique each other. Yung parang pag-hindi okay, sobra kaming maluwag sa isa’t isa. Kasi sabi ko nga, ‘pag-kukuha ako ng tao lagi dapat mas magaling sa akin kasi gusto ko matuto. Pero lahat kami dapat may intellectual humility to understand that we don’t know it all. So, while it’s a surprise that we got here, we’re very, very happy.”

(After premiering on Cignal TV and One PH, “Woman In Action: Beyond the Board” is now available for viewing on Gretchen Ho’s official YouTube channel.)