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