InitiativeLilly Movie Post Production, Lilly Movie Social Action Campaign
Grantee PartnerThe Film Collaborative
LILLY is a dramatic feature film based on the remarkable life of Fair Pay icon Lilly Ledbetter. As a tire factory supervisor, Lilly endured 20 years of discrimination, harassment, and unequal pay, but persevered to take her fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court and Congress. President Obama named the Fair Pay Act after Lilly, transforming her into a national icon.
Written and directed by Rachel Feldman, LILLY is a movie about the radical resilience of a woman, perhaps any woman, who is oppressed and cheated and gathers the inner resolve to fight another day. LILLY traces the journey of a little girl from Possum Trot, Alabama to a national activist who single-handedly changed law.
Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson has been cast in the lead role of Lilly. She is an actor who exists in that rarefied status of being lauded by critics and laden with prestigious awards and nominations for her skill, has popular recognition from a long and rich resume in both film and TV work, and has a deep passion for the subject matter.
Lilly Ledbetter herself is immersed in this project as the honorary chair of the LILLY Advisory Board created to inform the film’s impact campaign. She never fails to capture attention and inspire everyone who hears her message.
The LILLY Social Action Campaign is born of the credo “movies change the conversation; conversation changes culture and policy.” Therefore, the campaign will seek to influence culture first and policy second, by serving as a voice to convene non-profit organizations and activists, corporations and brands, workplace leaders and workers. Our mission is to forge a future of fair, equitable and safe workplaces.
As the film’s director and writer, my goal is to paint a portrait of a woman who without education or resources, suppressed by her time and place, and thwarted by one repressive patriarchy after another, finds it within herself to take on multiple monolithic institutions, figuring out how to hold onto love, and maturing through that arduous emotional journey