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Lilly at the 2025 Athena Film Festival
Now in its 15th year, New York City’s Athena Film Festival (AFF) was one of the first women’s film festivals in the US. It inspires the creation of women’s film festivals globally and continues to hold great screenings. The film Lilly is such a screening.
Over the last nine years AFF has welcomed over 30,000 global visitors to over 200 screenings at Barnard College. It energizes the creation of extraordinary women’s leadership stories in narratives, documentaries and shorts. Additionally AFF offers writing labs for TV and film writers, masterclasses, workshops, panels and opportunities for women breaking into the industry.
Lilly, the International Women’s Day Highlight at AFF
As one of its highlights, on Saturday, March 8, AFF celebrated International Women’s Day with a special screening of Lilly. After the sold-out screening the audience enjoyed a Q&A with award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson. Director Rachel Feldman joined the talkback moderated by film critic Thelma Adams. Known for her work in television, Feldman acutely shepherded Patricia Clarkson in the titular role of activist Lilly Ledbetter. As a result of her efforts, Feldman received placement on the inaugural Athena List. To encourage women who seek film careers, the annual slate spotlights un-produced screenplays centered on women leaders.
An engaging panel discussion with Feldman and Clarkson described the lengthy process of the film’s journey from page to screen. Clarkson discussed her approach to portraying the Alabama native Lilly Ledbetter. The wife, mother and dynamo fought for years to earn equal pay with her male counterparts at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Though she never received back remuneration after she sued, President Obama and Congress did pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. After its passage, Ledbetter continued to speak out and protest, becoming a civil rights icon.
A quasi biopic with documentary elements
Lilly concentrates on Ledbetter’s career at Goodyear, the largest employer in Gadsden, Alabama. Through flashback and flashforward, we discover Lilly works for Goodyear for 19 years, holding managerial positions. We meet the love of Lilly’s life, husband Charles (John Benjamin Hickey). Feldman also shows us Lilly as a younger women with two children, just getting by financially. In an intimate segment, Lilly tells traditionalist husband Charles that their family needs her to work.
The scenes with Charles set up Lilly’s inner core. Her determined character doesn’t take Charles’ “no” for an answer, at a time when women mostly still stayed home. And it’s her paychecks that will lift them into the middle class and pay for their children’s college. But as the first woman to become a supervisor, she endures abuse by her male co-workers, who don’t readily respect women in managerial positions.
In one instance Feldman shows men sexually harassing a female co-worker. When Lilly protects her and tells her to file a sexual harassment complaint, the woman refuses. The company punishes those who complain. If Lilly files complaints against the company on behalf of her workers, upper management gets revenge by putting her back on the “floor.” There, guiding the assembly line, the workers get injured. In one segment, Lilly comes home bruised from the grueling work. But Feldman uses the scene to show Lilly’s strength of character, work ethic and resilience.
Because of her paycheck, she, Charles and the children enjoy greater prosperity. However, her absence from home causes friction with her son, a conflict that resolves at the film’s conclusion. Additionally the dehumanizing work environment causes her stress. Nevertheless, Lilly stays, intending to receive an excellent pension when she retires.
The straw that breaks the camel’s back
When a younger man is promoted over her, and she learns that he is receiving a higher salary though he has little experience, an infuriated Lilly goes to a law firm to hire them to litigate against Goodyear for sexual discrimination. From this point on Feldman weaves a web of obstacles that Lilly must overcome, revealing what happened during the litigation.
First, the lawyers she engages with refuse to take her case because of a lack of evidence of sex discrimination. Nevertheless, Lilly persists. When she questions one of the lawyers, he tells her he agrees with her case on the merits. It only remains for Lilly to find evidence that the men receive higher pay than she does for equal work. When she finds a slip of paper with a list of the men’s salaries in management, she discovers that she makes thousands of dollars less than they do. Here is the proof she needs.
Lilly’s story is triumphant and exciting
Feldman simplifies the intricate details of Lilly’s situation and makes them thrilling and understandable. Clarkson’s Lilly wins us over. The superb actress must age and move back and forth in time. Not only is she likable as Lilly, she convincingly evokes Lilly’s courage and heroism standing up to the brutal company.
Driven by her tenacity despite the company’s forcing her out, she continues her litigation. With the support of her husband and her civil rights lawyer (Thomas Sadoski), Lilly’s fight for justice leads to a win. The court awards her an equivalent of retroactive pay. However, the Chamber of Commerce leads an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit where Lilly loses.
Over the next eight years, the loss takes her all the way to the Supreme Court. When Justice Alito and the other conservative justices rule against her, she persists. In 2009 Lilly becomes the namesake of President Obama’s first official piece of legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
With a love story at its center, Lilly follows the transformation of a heroic citizen who confronts a vital issue for the social good. In relating Lilly’s bittersweet triumph, Feldman includes videotaped interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg weighing in. Ginsburg notes the insidious way discrimination operates. And she says that power and control are at the heart of pay inequity. Finally, Feldman includes videos of the real Lilly Ledbetter receiving awards and speaking at the Democratic National Convention.
Indeed, after writing her book Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, Lilly continued her advocacy until her death at 86 in 2024. During the Q&A after the screening Patricia Clarkson expressed sorrow that Lilly died before she was able to meet her.
This is one to see in this current time when Trump and the MAGA party are trying to upend rights and push out DEI policies that prevent inequality in the workplace and unequal pay for equivalent work. Lilly screens in select theaters May 9. Look for updates on the Lilly website.
