The Girls Club will welcome directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen for a discussion about their new documentary, “My Name Is Pauli Murray.” The virtual chat will take place Monday, September 20, at 3 p.m. EST. It will be open to the public, but be sure to register in advance.
Founded by Women and Hollywood publisher and founder Melissa Silverstein, the Girls Club is a community for women creatives, culture-changers, and storytellers to connect, create, network, advocate, support, and redefine entertainment. The Girls Club is offering a one-month membership free of charge when you sign up. If you identify as a woman and would like an invitation to this community, please email girlsclubnetwork@gmail.com and let us know a bit about who you are and what you do.
Find Girls Club event details, a trailer and synopsis for “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” and the directors’ bios below.
Synopsis: Fifteen years before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat, a full decade before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned separate-but-equal legislation, Pauli Murray was already knee-deep fighting for social justice. A pioneering attorney, activist, priest, and dedicated memoirist, Murray shaped landmark litigation — and consciousness — around race and gender equity. As an African American youth raised in the segregated South — who was also wrestling with broader notions of gender identity — Pauli understood, intrinsically, what it was to exist beyond previously accepted categories and cultural norms. Both Pauli’s personal path and tireless advocacy foreshadowed some of the most politically consequential issues of our time. Told largely in Pauli’s own words, “My Name is Pauli Murray” is a candid recounting of that unique and extraordinary journey.
Bios:
Betsy West is the Academy Award-nominated director/producer of “RBG” (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films, 2018) along with Julie Cohen. She is a 21-time Emmy Award winner for her work as an ABC News producer and executive producer of the documentary series “Turning Point.” As vice president at CBS News from 1998 to 2005, she oversaw “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours.” She was executive producer of the “MAKERS” AOL & PBS, 2012) documentary and digital series, the short doc “The 4%: Film’s Gender Problem” (Epix, 2016), and the feature documentary “The Lavender Scare” (PBS, 2017). A graduate of Brown University, she is the Fred W. Friendly professor emerita at Columbia Journalism School.
Julie Cohen is the Academy Award-nominated director and producer of “RBG” (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films, 2018) along with Betsy West. Previous films she’s directed include “The Sturgeon Queens” (7th Art Releasing/PBS; Berlinale, 2015; Best of the Fest, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival), and “Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing” (PBS; 2014 New York Emmy Award for Best Arts Program). Before she started making documentaries, Cohen was a staff producer for NBC News and the creator and producer of “Supreme Court Watch” on Court TV. She holds a B.A. from Colgate and master’s degrees from Columbia Journalism School and Yale Law School.
