'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUH/8QAFAEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP/aAAwDAQACEAMQAAAAza+H/8QAIRAAAQIEBwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgEEABESEwMFBiQxUrH/2gAIAQEAAT8AYZ2bZvcNw7IsRLY0lK2SLVNPIDUjygd2747R/8QAFBEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP/aAAgBAgEBPwB//8QAFBEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP/aAAgBAwEBPwB//9k='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The upcoming Netflix documentary Julia's Stepping Stones chronicles the life of the Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Julia Reichert, focussing on her influential career, her feminist outlook, and her contribution to shaping the documentary genre. The film premieres on Netflix on December 18, 2024.
Julia's Stepping Stones is created by Reichert’s husband Steven Bognar, who has also previously worked with Reichert. They share the Academy and Emmy Award honors for their documentary American Factory. Although directed by Bognar, Julia's Stepping Stones is told in Reichert’s own words. Before she passed away from cancer in 2022, she recorded the story of her journey as a filmmaker.
The true story behind Julia's Stepping Stones
Trending
Julia Reichert was born and brought up in Bordentown Township, New Jersey. She graduated high school in 1964 and went on to get a degree in documentary arts from Antioch College in 1970.
Coming from a working-class background, Julia Reichert faced her own struggles, however, she had a long and successful career in filmmaking and was also the professor emeritus of film production at Wright State University. Additionally, she co-founded New Day Films and Indie Caucus and won the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award in 2018.
Julia's Stepping Stones tells the true story behind the rise of Reichert, documenting her struggles, social activism, and her filmmaking career. According to Bognar, the documentary was inspired by Reichert’s determination and courage to pursue something meaningful. As per Dayton Daily News' article dated September 25, 2024, Bognar said:
“I was struck by her courage. Julia found a way to create a life for herself when no one had any expectations of or for her. No one in her family had been to college. Her dad was a butcher in a grocery store. She dreamed of having a life beyond just being a secretary, getting married and having kids. She not only dreamed but took action toward those dreams."
He continued:
"She found a way to get to college. She discovered WYSO, radio storytelling and photography. And little by little she went into filmmaking.”
Reichert was nominated for her first Academy Award in 1977 for Union Maids, which was a collaboration between her, Jim Klein, and Miles Mogulescu. She was then nominated for a second time in 1984 for Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists, a project she made in collaboration with Klein.
She was nominated again in 2010, but this time with Bognar, her husband. The nomination came for their documentary The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. The couple ultimately won their first Academy Award and an Emmy award together in 2020 for American Factory.
Julia Reichert passed away on December 1, 2022, at the age of 76, after a long battle with a rare form of cancer. Her works, spanning over fifty years, are humanistic in their outlook and deal with compelling themes like feminism, family, politics, and economics.
About Netflix's Julia's Stepping Stones
Julia's Stepping Stones premiered at the 2024 Full Frame Film Festival and is arriving on Netflix this Wednesday. The movie marks the final collaboration between Julia Reichert and her husband and fellow filmmaker, Steven Bognar.
The official logline of the documentary reads as follows:
"Throughout her career, pioneering filmmaker, the late Julia Reichert, gave voice to the voiceless. In a final collaboration with her husband, Steven Bognar, Julia shares the intimate story of her own journey, from her youth as a working-class girl who dreamt of a larger life for herself to her discovery of documentary filmmaking and her own voice along the way."
Netflix's official trailer for the documentary gives us a glimpse at Reichert's life, her principles and creative outlook, her unique method of filmmaking, and her feminist identity, which is reflected in all her works. With clips from her early days as a filmmaker, Julia's Stepping Stones is a celebration of Reichert's life and legacy.
Catch the full story about the late filmmaker in Julia's Stepping Stones on Netflix this Wednesday, December 18.
