Names: Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok
Sundance project: Codirected the documentary “Judy Blume Forever.”
Notable past credits: Emmy award-winning doc “Very Semi-Serious,” about New Yorker cartoonists.
Their first Sundance premiere: “It’s always been a dream to premiere a film at Sundance. We’ve come here several times as moviegoers and as fans and supporters of friends who have had films here,” says Wolchok. “After the last few years, it’s so neat to be able to watch the film in a theater full of people and to see their reactions, hear their reactions, and feel their reactions. It’s something you can’t get any other place.”
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How it came about: “Like thousands and thousands of kids have been doing for decades, I wrote a ‘Dear Judy’ letter,” says Pardo, asked how she recruited Judy Blume as the subject of her latest documentary, codirected with Wolchok. Several weeks after sending her initial e-mail to Blume, the author responded. At first, Blume wasn’t sure she wanted a documentary made about her life — plus, she was busy with her bookstore down in Key West.
“[Blume] was hesitant, but the door was always open,” Pardo adds of that early connection. “So I kept in touch for a long time. And then finally, after about a year and a half, we met for the first time and then about six months later, finally she said yes.”
That “yes” came in February 2020. Now, three years later, the director duo — who met while students in Stanford’s MFA documentary program — debuted their completed Judy Blume documentary at Sundance.
What’s next: 2023 is a big year for Blume. In addition to the documentary, the famed 84-year-old author, known for YA classics like “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” has also authorized two screen adaptations of her works. (Mara Brock Akil is currently adapting “Forever” for a Netflix series; “Are You There God” will be released theatrically by Lionsgate later this spring.)
The documentary includes sit-down interviews with Blume, vérité footage of the author with her two children, archival clips and interviews with authors and actresses who were inspired by Blume’s writing, including “Girls” creator Lena Dunham and “Pen15” star Anna Konkle.
“Those two shows, they feel like would never have been made had they not read Judy Blume,” says Wolchok. “Reading sort of democratizes everyone because it’s just you and the book and the words on the page. It’s really a beautiful, pure, simple connection between the reader and the words, and it doesn’t matter how famous you are or how young or how old you are.”
What surprised them: Asked whether they discovered anything surprising about the writer while making the documentary, Pardo returned to the topic of Blume’s tenacity. Many of Blume’s books have been banned by school districts and parents throughout the years, censorship that the author has consistently pushed back against. The film includes a notable 1984 TV interview with conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, which features a zesty pushback by Blume.
“She fought expectations in so many different ways: cultural expectations for women, for housewives in the ’60s, and going up against censors,” says Pardo. “I always knew she was a trailblazer, but the depth of that and the ways in which that played out were surprising to me.”
