Imagine being able to be the Governor of the state of California twice. For Jerry Brown, that’s exactly what happened.
First as a 36-year-old. And then at 72. A natural disrupter, Jerry Brown kickstarted the national debate about climate change and spiraling inequality back in the 1970s.
As the daughter of a politician — State Assemblyman and Senator and later Justice George N. Zenovich – I spent many summers in the Capitol building in Sacramento, watching politics unfold all around me. I’ve always wanted to make a film about Jerry Brown. I know him both as a political figure and as a layered, complex human. I want people to hear Jerry’s hard-won truths about politics and public life – and about where he thinks America is heading.
He’s lived through two very different political eras. He’s done deals in smoke-filled rooms and lived to see the age of 24/7 social media. Over the course of his career politics, culture and societal expectations have evolved far beyond what anyone could have imagined in 1975. After a lifetime mixed with successes and failures, reaching across the aisle and sometimes failing to find common ground, Governor Brown can offer a wisdom and a way forward in this tense political climate.
What lessons has Jerry learned in his 50 years in politics? Are there some character traits he just can’t change? Does he wish things could have unfolded differently? How far is he in competition with himself and how far with his father Pat Brown, who governed California during the 1960s?
My goal is to let audiences be inspired by the life and mind of Jerry Brown, a man ahead of his time and a leader for our times.
Marina Zenovich is the director of American Masters – Jerry Brown: The Disrupter.
