Justice Ginsburg In Her Own Words’ Shows Another Side Of The Legal Legend


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When director Freida Lee Mock signed on to helm a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Academy Award winner knew little about the legendary justice.

“I really came to understand the power of her legacy as I researched her,” Mock says. “I found out how enormously productive she was as a judge, a justice and a litigator. She did so many things before she came on to the Supreme Court, and her work was rather different than most of the justices we see on the court.”

Mock was particularly struck by what Ginsburg said about having three strikes against her—she was Jewish, a mother and a woman. “Understanding that seemed to be a way to understand the journey through which she became this powerful justice,” Mock says.

Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, which became available on-demand earlier this month following a limited theatrical release in December, explores Ginsburg’s life through this lens. Mock traces Ginsburg’s early years, when she had to clear higher legal and social barriers than her male colleagues, and how personal, social and political forces met to make her career possible.

The film includes interviews with the late Ginsburg, who passed away on Sept. 18, 2020, just a few months before the film’s release, as well as California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu, a former Ginsburg clerk; Virginia gubernatorial candidate and public defender Jennifer Carroll Foy, who attended Virginia Military Institute following a Ginsburg opinion requiring the school to admit women; and Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff in an equal pay case that came before the Supreme Court in 2007, prompting Ginsburg to deliver a scathing descent.

Mock was particularly drawn to Ginsburg’s work on sex discrimination cases in the 1970s. “That laid a foundation for who we are today, a progressive, contemporary legal society in terms of men and women. She challenged the existing system, and she probably would not have been a Supreme Court justice if not for that work in the ‘70s,” Mock says.

She notes that Ginsburg was “not a political person”—if anything, that description suited her husband, Marty, a gregarious tax attorney. “Getting her on the short list in front of President Clinton was very much the work of her campaign manager, Marty,” Mock says.

As Mock began making the film in 2017, she knew her access to Ginsburg for interviews would be limited; unlike she did for her documentary about Anita Hill, the director couldn’t follow the justice around day after day. She worked with her team in preproduction to find primary and secondary sources that illustrated Ginsburg’s personality. Mock said before becoming a public figure, Ginsburg appeared “more spontaneous and unguarded.”

“She overcame so many obstacles as a woman, a mother and health obstacles, we hoped she would be here with us when the film came out,” Mock says. “She remains strong in our mind and the legacy of the work she’s done. I feel that, personally, her passing was so profound, I’m happy the film is there to help understand her.”

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