JFI Digital Screening Room
Available January 19-21st
Journalist, fighter, and feminist Gloria Steinem is an indelible icon known for her world-shaping activism, her guidance of the revolutionary women’s movement, and her writing that has impacted generations. In this nontraditional biopic, against the backdrop of a lonely bus on an open highway, five Glorias trace Steinem’s influential journey to prominence—from her time in India as a young woman, to the founding of Ms. magazine in New York, to her role in the rise of the women’s rights movement in the 1960s and beyond.
In her hotly anticipated new film, Julie Taymor (Frida, Across the Universe) brings her signature inventiveness and audacity to craft a complex tapestry of one of the most iconic and legendary figures of modern history, based on Steinem’s own memoir My Life on the Road. Remarkable performances by Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander steer an engaging cast with strong supporting turns from Janelle Monáe and Bette Midler. Taymor makes her own rules in this dazzling ode to self-reflection, exploring the importance of forging your own path and embracing the challenge of the open road.
The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Julie Taymor led by Laura Thielen, former Artistic Director of the Aspen Film Festival and San Francisco International Film Festival.
Julie Taymor's films include Oedipus Rex (Emmy), starring Jessye Norman; Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins; Frida (Academy Award), starring Salma Hayek; Across the Universe (Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations); The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her theatre includes The Lion King (two Tonys); M. Butterfly, starring Clive Owen; and Grounded, starring Anne Hathaway. Her operas include The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera). She is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.
This Program is part of the Stories She Tells series, supported by a generous grant from Propel.
