September, 2010 Update

This past spring and summer have been very productive.

In April Emily spent two days in Lawrence, Kansas, searching for photos and information from the time period that Rosalie was attending the University of Kansas during World War II.

In May,  Minnesota Women Lawyers held a CLE event "Lessons from Justice Wahl" which addressed the gender bias issues facing women lawyers in Minnesota in the past.  At the event Emily showed clips from our documentary and a trailer for the film.  The event was very well received.

This summer we have interviewed Sara Wahl and Jenny Blaine, Rosalie's two daughters. We also interviewed Judge Pamela Alexander and Judge Harriet Lansing.  All of these interviews were fantastic and will add to the final film.

Out of many hours of tape and thousands of photos and visuals we have edited over an hour of the rough cut, which currently we believe will be two hours in length.  This length will be shortened to approximately 80 minutes as we proceed to fine tune the documentary.  Our goal is to complete the rough cut of the film by year end.

Several friends of the project have offered to help us with fundraising later this fall.  We are excited about this prospect of enough support to allow us to complete the polished professional documentary needed for the broadest distribution.

Later this month, Emily will be going to France to complete a documentary about a unique French artist, Pierre Prevost.  The film has been funded by a Jerome Foundation grant.

Emily and John

Great Progress!

For the past five weeks I've been working on the script for "She Who Would Giants Fight."  I've also begun the editing process and am well on the way to a first rough cut of the documentary.  It is going very well, though I am still searching for video/photo support for the years between 1930 and 1960.

I will be spending a couple days at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where Rosalie attended college during World War II.  Again I am primarily interested in visual images to support the storytelling of the film.

Looking forward to the Minnesota Women Lawyers CLE event the first week of May.  It will be a fascinating, educational look at the history of women breaking through gender barriers in the legal and judicial structures of our society.

Emily

Minnesota Women Lawyers will sponsor a CLE in May

Very exciting news.  Minnesota Women Lawyers has scheduled a Continuing Legal Education program for May 4th, 2010.  The CLE will deal with gender fairness issues, past and present, within the context of the Rosalie Wahl story, "She Who Would Giants Fight."  See the post below for a more complete description of the CLE.

We're very lucky to have three excellent judges: Judge Harriet Lansing, Judge Susan Miles and Justice Lorie Gildea who have agreed to chair a discussion panel for the CLE.

The CLE will take place at the Robins law firm at 4:00pm in the afternoon of May 4th.

Minnesota Women Lawyers Diversity Committee Meeting

On February 19, 2010 John and Emily met with Uyen Campbell, Rachel Hable, Karin Holt and Deb Pexa, all members of Minnesota Women Lawyers.  Uyen, Rachel and Karin are part of the Diversity Committee of MWL.  We discussed the current status of the project and showed two edited excerpts from the film along with our trailer about the documentary. 

During the meeting we planned two activities intended to promote "She Who Would Giants Fight." 

We will write an article for MWL's April newsletter which describes the documentary and contains information about how to support the project, as well as information about a CLE that MWL will hold in the spring.

The CLE will be a panel of women judges/lawyers addressing issues of gender bias in our legal system.  The program will include a discussion of the discriminatory practices that existed in the application of our laws when women were not represented in the legal or judicial systems in our country.  The panel will discuss past cases which held that disparate treatment of women was permissible, and the panel will also discuss whether there continues to exist disparate treatment in the legal system today.  This discussion will take place in the context of the story of Rosalie Wahl and the Minnesota women's movement of the 1970's.

We have two house parties now in the works and will update our blog when we have further details.

Emily and John

Meeting with St. Croix Chapter of Minnesota Women Lawyers

On Monday, February 8, John and I met with the executive committee of the St. Croix chapter of MWL.  We made a presentation about the film and showed the trailer with excerpts.  The documentary was very well received and the committee offered to help us raise money for the film.  We discussed the possibility of a fund raising event in the Stillwater area in April.

Also, Wendy Murphy graciously offered to hold a house party.

We would like to thank the MWL St. Croix Chapter for their enthusiasm and willingness to help on this project.  We also want to express our great appreciation to Judge Susan Miles for her help and support and to Karin Holt who is providing so much assistance on this project!!

During the next two weeks we will meet with Uyen Campbell, from the Diversity Committee of MWL.  We would like to plan a CLE event in the spring.

John and Emily

Developments in our Fundraising Efforts

There have been some great developments with regard to fundraising opportunities for "She Who Would Giants Fight."

Evon Spangler, an attorney in St. Paul, has graciously offered to sponsor a house party to raise funds for the film.  The house party is scheduled for April 30, 2010.  More details later.

On Monday, February 8, John and I will do a presentation of the documentary to the St. Croix Valley Chapter of Minnesota Women Lawyers to determine their interest in supporting the project.

We have also been contacted by the Diversity Committee of Minnesota Women Lawyers. The committee is suggesting that we work together on a CLE dealing with gender bias.  This topic is one of the key messages in our documentary, and we hope to educate people on the importance of the women's movement to ensure women's rights are protected in our society.  Lightshed would share in fees raised from this educational event.

Everything is moving along very well on the documentary.

Emily and John

The Making of "She Who Would Giants Fight"

This is the first post in Lightshed's blog documenting the production of the feature-length documentary on the life and legacy of Rosalie Wahl, first woman on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Emily Haddad and Rosalie Wahl at Rosalie's home in Lake Elmo.

Our progress so far...

Much of the filming on the documentary has been completed.  We've twice gone down to Southeast Kansas to film and research in the places where Rosalie grew up. 

We've spent months collecting visual, oral and historical documentation from the internet, and from various historical societies, including the tremendous archives of the Minnesota History Center and the Minnesota Supreme Court.

We've completed interviews of the following individuals:                     
                                                                                                                   

Justice Rosalie Wahl (ret.)

Chief Justice Doug Amdahl (ret.)

Chief Justice Robert Sheran (ret.)

Chief Justice Sandy Keith (ret.)

Chief Justice Eric Magnuson

Justice Esther Tomljanovich (ret.) (photo at right and below with Emily)

Justice Paul Anderson

Judge Doris Huspeni (ret.)

Professor Robert Stein

Professor Doug Heidenrich

Professor Mike Steenson
Professor SallyKenney
Carol Connolly

Connie Perpich

Koryne Horbal (photo below left)
C. Paul Jones

What's left to do?

We have several interviews left to complete during the next months. We are also planning another trip to Kansas, this time to the town of Lawrence where the University of Kansas is located. This is where Rosalie went to college during World War II, a very formative time in her life.

We intend to film several reenactment segments during the summer and fall months.  These visuals will help tell the story of Rosalie during the Depression years, since there is very little visual material from that period.

All of the interviews and film footage must be transcribed, and then a script drafted to tell the story of Rosalie and of the women's movement in Minnesota that made her appointment possible. After that begins the massive editing process to connect all of the material -- oral and visual -- together in a compelling narrative of Rosalie's life and legacy.

Once the rough edit is complete we will be fine tuning the film...and working on post-production sound, music, and voiceover.  Our goal is to have several top actors narrate and/or do voiceover for various sections of the documentary.

And that's the news today --- January 9, 2010!!!


John Kaul and Emily Haddad