“We had no idea that the book banning of the ’80s was going to be anything but history, and suddenly the film is coming out and here we are all over again going through this, but worse,” said author Judy Blume, who’s the subject of the documentary “Judy Blume Forever.”
Blume is the beloved author of seminal young adult fiction such as “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” and “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.” “Judy Blume Forever” celebrates her legacy and how she changed the way young people look at themselves, their anatomy, growing up, sex and life.
“We’re all of this generation where our mothers and fathers really did not talk to us about sex,” producer Sara Bernstein said of herself and her fellow producers and co-directors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok. “So, Judy was absolutely necessary.” Blume and the Imagine Documentaries filmmakers gathered for an Amazon FYC panel to discuss their personal new documentary.
The filmmakers looked at fan letters Blume received over the years and her longtime correspondence with them over several decades, and it even featured two of these women in the film. Pardo said they operated under the working title “Dear Judy Blume” because these letters were such a testament to the profound impact and legacy of Blume’s work.
“I was a very fearful kid, and even a fearful person,” said Blume. “But in thinking about it later, I was fearless in my writing. I didn’t know enough to be afraid.”
The documentary crew was almost entirely women because “We wanted to create this feeling of safety and intimacy,” Wolchok said. “We were like this family of crazy sisters.”
In this new age of Blume, one much different from the world in which she wrote “Blubber” and “Deenie,” a bright, new appreciation for the author has resurged
“My son told me that when the women have power in Hollywood, they are going to come calling. And he was right,” said Blume. And as the women who grew up reading her books get older, they periodically reach out to her asking for more. But Blume wants her books to forever be for those young readers looking for some answers and some comfort.
She said, “People write to me and say, ‘Judy, it’s time for Margaret in Menopause!’ And it’s like, no, Margaret will always be 12.”
