Judy Blume’s Poignant Documentary Is Nostalgia Done Right
In the past few months, Judy Blume has seen a spike in publicity. The author has been promoting the trailer for the first adaptation of her classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; she revealed that she once ate an entire Entenmann’s crumb cake in one sitting; and she’s now heading to Sundance. It’s like the release of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing all over again! Right? I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t there.
But Judy Blume Forever, a doc profiling the author premiering at this year’s Sundance, sure makes everyone feel like they were among the front lines of teens buying her most famous books when they came out in the ’70s.
Judy Blume Forever brings together all kinds of Blume readers to spotlight just how timeless the author has become. Famous folks like Lena Dunham and Anna Konkle share how Blume informed the portrayal of women’s sexuality on their TV shows (Girls and Pen15, respectively), for instance. But there are also appearances from lesser-known authors, who spill on how the novelist informed their careers. Readers who have been writing notes to Blume for decades chime in on how her responses affected their lives forever; later on, kids of the 21st century share that they’re reading Judy Blume books too, nearly 50 years later.