‘Judy Blume Forever’ Filmmakers Discuss Beloved Author Who Inspires Devotion, And Book Banning – Contenders TV: Doc + Unscripted

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Few authors have established as powerful a bond with their fans as Judy Blume. That incredible connection first manifested with the publication of her debut novel for young adults, 1970’s Are You There God?

It’s Me, Margaret, which shattered taboos by candidly addressing subjects like menstruation and masturbation.   “It was the first time, I think, that an author had written a character that girls could relate to on an internal level, like she was speaking to their internal lives,” said filmmaker Leah Wolchok, co-director and producer of the Prime Video documentary Judy Blume Forever. “She wrote in the first person.

And I think readers felt like they were reading their own diary. … Kids just flocked to the book.”  RELATED: Contenders Docs + Unscripted Deadline’s Complete Coverage While young readers flocked, some adults swooped – demanding Blume’s books be yanked from shelves.

During an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event, Wolchok, fellow director-producer Davina Pardo and producer Sara Bernstein discussed the controversy that has attended Blume’s work for more than 50 years.  “Judy today is almost more relevant than [ever. ]… Her books are banned today as much as they were in the ‘80s,” said Bernstein, president of Imagine Documentaries, the unit of Imagine Entertainment that produced the film. “It’s really important, obviously, that young people and all people are given a chance to decide what they want to read.”  RELATED: Judy Blume Says Book Banning In US “Worse Than 1980s – It’s Become Political” Said Pardo: “I keep thinking about this line [Judy] says in the film — it’s an archival clip where she’s fighting back against the sensors and she says, ‘A book cannot