sundance film festival

Even if you’ve never cracked open one of Judy Blume’s dozens of novels, this candid, engaging look at the author’s life and work is an enjoyable and enlightening way to spend 90 minutes. Blume — forthright, gracious, down to earth — is great company over the course of the film. She recounts how she willed her transformation from 1960s housewife to the defining author of YA fiction in the ‘70s and ‘80s. She made the transition to adult fiction and survived the first wave of right wing censorship in the 1980s when the Moral Majority found an ally in President Ronald Reagan.

Filmmakers Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok bring the absolute magic of the real-life journey of influential author Judy Blume to life in an intimate look at how she brought pure love, joy, and inspiration to readers worldwide. The biodoc shares details on how Blume got her start in writing. She was a young college graduate, newly married to her already established lawyer husband at the time, with him stating that he didn’t mind her hobby “as long as it didn’t interfere with raising their kids.”