Credit: Chris Pizzello
Credit: Chris Pizzello
The Neon will screen the local premiere of “Julia’s Stepping Stones,” the journey of her filmmaking career told in her own words. Crafted by Bognar, Reichert’s husband, the film premiered in April at the Full Frame Film Festival.
“‘Julia’s Stepping Stones’ is a deeply personal movie to me,” Bognar said. “I worked on it throughout 2023, not long after Julia’s death. For me, really, it was grief therapy. I loved hearing her voice and seeing her face throughout the editing, and I’m thrilled to bring her story to Dayton audiences, and especially at The Neon, a theater she loved.”
The screening will also include “Growing Up Female,” Reichert and Klein’s 1971 documentary showcasing how girls and women are socialized. In addition to being selected in 2011 by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry of historically significant films, the film served as Reichert’s senior project at Antioch College and is the very first film of the modern women’s movement.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
The Neon states “Growing Up Female” caused controversy and exhilaration. “It was widely used by consciousness-raising groups to generate interest and help explain feminism to a skeptical society,” organizers noted. “The film looks at female socialization through a personal look into the lives of six women, age 4 to 35, and the forces that shape them — teachers, counselors, advertising, music and the institution of marriage. It offers us a chance to see how much has changed — and how much remains the same.”
Reichert grew up in Bordentown Township, New Jersey and was a 1964 graduate of Bordentown Regional High School. She graduated from Antioch College in 1970 with a degree in documentary arts. In addition to serving as professor emeritus of film production at Wright State, she co-founded New Day Films and Indie Caucus, an advocacy group ensuring the sustainability of documentaries on PBS. She also won the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award in 2018.
Reichert received her first Academy Award nomination in 1977 with Klein and Miles Mogulescu for “Union Maids.” She was nominated again with Klein in 1984 for “Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists.” Partnering with Bognar, she received an Academy Award nomination in 2010 for “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” She ultimately won the Oscar in 2020 with Bognar for “American Factory.” She also shared two Emmys with Bognar for “A Lion in the House” (2006) and “American Factory,” which focused on the Chinese-owned Fuyao Glass America windshield plant that opened in the former General Motors factory in Moraine.
Additional credits include “Sparkle” (2012), “Making Morning Star” (2015) and “9 to 5: The Story of a Movement” (2020). Most recently she and Bognar profiled the career of comedian Dave Chappelle in “8:46″ (2020) and “Dave Chappelle: Live in Real Life” (2021).
“We were honored to have hosted Julia’s ‘50 Years in Film’ retrospective in 2021 and 2022, with Julia attending several of the screenings,” said Neon manager Jonathan McNeal. “And we’re delighted to know that what she presented, as a slideshow and in-person presentation, in the fall of 2021 has been captured and turned into a film — ‘Julia’s Stepping Stones.’”
How to go
What: “Julia’s Stepping Stones” and “Growing Up Female”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton
Cost: $12.50
More info: neonmovies.com
About the Author