Before starting Julia's Stepping Stones, the short documentary now streaming on Netflix, I went to Wikipedia and read about the American filmmaker Julia Reichert. A co-founder of New Day Films, Reichert had spent 50 years as a director and producer of documentaries. She was also an activist and a feminist and was nominated for an Academy Award four times for films like Union Maids, Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, and American Factory. Reichert won an Oscar for that last film. She was a two-time winner of the Primetime Emmy, was honored with lifetime achievement awards from the International Documentary Association, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and the Hot Docs Film Festival, and...well, you can read all about her achievements on her Wikipedia page where you can also get a summary of her films, her personal life, and her death caused by urothelial cancer. With Julia's Stepping Stones, I, more or less, expected a Wikipedia page-like brief sprint through Reichert's life. The documentary, thankfully, doesn't follow the style of a "mainstream Netflix documentary." You know, talking heads and recreations holding our hands and telling a story.
This shouldn't have come as much of a surprise, given the film is directed by Reichert and her husband, Steven Bognar, making this the final collaboration between them. I saw a few minutes of Seeing Red on YouTube (I was a bit busy) and was surprised by the magnetic power of the images. I am happy to report that I experienced something similar with Julia's Stepping Stones. The way Reichert and Bognar display the filmmaker's childhood photos and clips through creatively exhilarating frame rate manipulations provides vigor not only to the onscreen images but also to our own senses. Reichert's voice, on the other hand, infuses a sense of intimacy into the film. She narrates her story while talking on the telephone, and it seems as if she is engaged in a casual conversation with a friend - in this case, the viewer.
Reichert shares her memories of growing up in a modest home with one bathroom and three bedrooms, where her siblings all shared a room. Reichert's mother was a nurse, and her father was a butcher. It's unclear how her family reacted to her becoming a filmmaker. What did her siblings think of her profession? Did they ever watch her films? What were their thoughts? Julia's Stepping Stones leaves these questions unanswered. It does, however, highlight a moment of vulnerability for Reichert - she felt embarrassed about her father's job when she was around her affluent college friends. She didn't immediately find herself in the realm of cinema. At first, during the Civil Rights Movement, she aspired to be a journalist. Later, she ventured into radio. Moreover, let's not forget her fascination with photography, which had been present since childhood. Eventually, Reichert realized that all these interests could beautifully converge in the field of cinema. At that time (Reichert tells us), the societal roles for women were limited to being teachers, secretaries, or nurses; after that, they were tethered to the shackles of marriage.
Reichert also remembers how, as a waitress, her opinions were rejected by young people simply because of her profession. But Reichert, through movies, found a voice as well as freedom. She was seduced by the alternate POVs that she found in films by directors like Alain Resnais, whose Night and Fog made her aware of the Holocaust. Julia's Stepping Stones starts from Reichert's young days and ends with her discovery and exploration of the film medium. It has no interest in talking about her death and cancer because good filmmakers never really die. They become immortal through their work. Julia's Stepping Stones is a funny (Reichert's meeting with a producer is depicted using a scene from The Godfather), feel-good film. It's like a warm, gentle hug. I enjoyed this documentary more than most critically acclaimed movies of the year.
Final Score- [9/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
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Publisher at Midgard Times