#MeToo matriarch
Documentary dives into life of controversial attorney Gloria Allred
P ARK CITY, Utah — As the ending credits rolled for the documentary, “Seeing Allred,” which details the life and times of controversial women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, the audience at the Sundance Film Festival stood and cheered while clapping along to the classic Laura Branigan song, “Gloria.”
It was an emotional moment for codirectors Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman, and executive producer Marta Kauffman, who had been working on the project for more than four years.
“We felt like everyone was having a communal experience and that was really magical and really exciting,” Grossman said.
Sartain, who worked as a reporter at the Houston Post in the early ’90s before leaving to earn a master’s degree in film at the University of Texas, first became interested in doing a documentary about Allred when they met at book club in Los Angeles, where they both live.
“I remember at that meeting thinking this woman is very different than (the one) I see on television. She was a nice warm, regular person. Not the Gloria Allred you see on TV,” Sartain said.
“She has a fascinating life story, very compelling, very dramatic. She’s completely self-made and kind of invented this persona. We also admired her for the fights that had been so consistent for 40 years. We just felt like it was long overdue.”
The documentary suddenly became more topical as the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements galvanized public attention on the issue of sexual harassment just as the co-directors submitted the film to Sundance.
“We wanted to tell the story anyway,” said Kauffman, co-creator of sitcom classic “Friends” and the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie.” “But once we started, the Bill Cosby thing came up, and suddenly there’s this tsunami and this movement. And Gloria was at the forefront. She represented so many women in these cases. It was just luck in this weird way. I’m sorry it had to happen this way, but it makes the telling of the story even more important and the
timing more fortuitous.”
Allred, 76, has represented 33 of Cosby’s sexual accusers, as well as three women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault. She also has represented several women accusing film executive Harvey Weinstein, politician Roy Moore and director Roman Polanski of sexual assault.
Allred currently is representing “The Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos in a defamation suit against Trump, who called her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.
Many of the accusers have appeared at press conferences at Allred’s LA office, drawing barbs from critics for the attorney’s flamboyant style and theatrical ways.
“People make the mistake of thinking that she’s trying to get attention for herself. She’s using herself to get attention for her clients and her causes,” Grossman said. “Not everybody is willing to stand up and get the slings and arrows that she gets. But they deflect off of her and she makes her point.”
“And she’s really funny,” Kauffman said.
After working on the project for about a year, Sartain, Grossman and Kauffman took a sample reel to Netflix, which agreed to finance the documentary and premiere it on the streaming service on Feb. 9. “To have the global reach as documentary filmmakers is just mind-blowing,” Sartain said. “#MeToo is not just a U.S. movement, it is global.”
Kauffman recalled that during a question-and-answer session after the Sundance screening, one young woman asked, “What do we do now?”
“I hope that’s what happens with this film — that more people say, ‘What can I do?’ and get inspired,” Kauffman said.
Though she lives and works in southern California, Sartain returned to Texas in 2009 to direct an award-winning documentary “Mimi and Dona,” which details the daunting issues that occurred when her 92-year-old grandmother could no longer care for her developmentally disabled aunt in Dallas. The film was shown as part of the “Independent Lens” series on PBS.
Sartain’s advice to an aspiring filmmaker?
“Tell your stories. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Texas. It doesn’t matter if you’re in LA. If you’ve got a story to tell, do it. It can be scary, but if you put it out there in an authentic way, you can be heard.”