Judy Blume Forever
Millions of admirers will think that Davina Pardo & Leah Wolchok’s documentary “Judy Blume Forever” is like taking a trip back to their childhood, when they couldn’t wait to flip the pages of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, or any other book by Blume that has brought joy to generations.
But for part of the country’s reading population those who weren’t allowed to read her books (“too matured” and “too secularized,” which is why it wasn’t in my school library in Florida) or didn’t even know about them “Judy Blume Forever” serves as a delightful primer on the author herself, her life story and some of what inspired her storytelling. Whether you’re a fan or not, this tribute to the writer shines with the same warmth that greets customers at Blume’s Key West bookstore.
Once upon a time, Judy Blume wasn’t the literary juggernaut she is today. Before that, she was just a kid during World War II who worried about everything. Later, as a young housewife and mother of two, stories for children at bedtime became her first writing endeavor. Then, finally, came the publisher who gave her a shot and within a few years she had become an author with 20 books to her name.
But “Judy Blume Forever” is not just about Judy Blume. It’s also about this country’s social changes; the gender barriers she broke down with her books, the struggle to be taken seriously as a professional when others sneered at her kid-friendly literature, the ongoing fight against conservative efforts to ban books from young readers.
Blume herself guides us through this journey with gentle narration telling funny and tragic anecdotes, sharing memories of both regret and joy, reading passages from her books with the kind of warm enthusiasm that brings characters and their moments to life onscreen (often brought literally to life by animator Angelique Georges or collage artists Andrew Griffin and Martin O’Neill).
Pardo and Wolchok use archival footage old ads and newsreels to take us back in time to different periods in Blume’s life, which are then illustrated by a wealth of family photos and home movies. Facing the camera head on, Blume is an open book (so to speak), brave enough not just to talk about her father’s sudden death or romantic setbacks but also willing to reveal some of the behind the scenes development that went into certain novels. Building off Blume’s warm presence throughout the film, cinematographers Jenni Morello and Emily Topper bring vibrant energy to what might otherwise be visually static talking head interviews while composer Lauren Culjak (aka Kotomi) contributes playful vibes through pacing.
The voice we hear most often belongs to Blume, but she’s soon joined by an insightful chorus of friends, family and fans. Childhood pals recall schoolyard hijinks and conversations that ended up inspiring some of her books. We meet Blume’s children, Randy and Lawrence, as well as her husband George Cooper giving us a glimpse into the author’s life away from the typewriter. Other fans (including writers Jacqueline Woodson, Mary H.K. Choi, Tayari Jones and Alex Gino along with celebrities Molly Ringwald, Samantha Bee and Lena Dunham) further express their admiration for Blume and explain why her work remains so everlasting. And then there are the letters written to her by children who found comfort in her stories while dealing with their own problems two such kids-turned-adults (Lorrie Kim and Karen Chilstrom) speak about how they wrote to Blume when they were young; how she answered them; how they kept writing to each other as they grew up through marriages, divorces, births, deaths. It is clear from these personal testimonies just what an impact this woman has had on readers’ lives across generations.
With 25 titles and more than 80 million copies sold worldwide to date (not counting translations into countless languages), there certainly is no shortage of Judy Blume stories to tell.
Pardo and Wolchok’s “Judy Blume Forever” is a warm appreciation of an American literary legend that evokes the past, shows us what words can do, reveals where some lines we can’t forget came from and reminds us how little time has passed since Blume fought against book banning still happening in her adopted state of Florida, where authorities are trying to keep kids from reading not just her books but also those by LGBTQ authors and writers of color. “I could write through my worst times,” she says at one point in this documentary about her life, adding that it was through writing that she found her voice. “Judy Blume Forever” is a good title for a story about somebody who spent a career giving readers the tools they need to grow up telling their own stories.
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