EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winning actress Julianna Margulies has signed on to executive produce Sister Senators, an upcoming documentary feature “about the only five women in the overwhelmingly male South Carolina State Senate, who defy party lines to fight for women’s rights.”
Emily Harrold is directing the film that examines the unusual alliance between Republican senators Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn, Penry Gustafson, Democrat Margie Bright Matthews, and Independent Mia McLeod, who came together to block a near-total abortion ban in their state. Harrold (Meltdown in Dixie; While I Breathe, I Hope) followed the legislators “as they gained international attention for their unlikely collaboration and as they faced the ramifications of their actions in a state and country that has become increasingly partisan.”
L-R Producer-director Emily Harrold, EP Julianna Margulies, producer Robin Hessman of ‘Sister Senators’
Courtesy of Dillon Deaton
“After seeing just a few minutes of footage from this project, I knew I had to do anything I could to be involved,” Margulies said in a statement. “At a moment when women’s rights are being trampled upon, we need examples of powerful women who are willing to put people before partisan politics. How can 41 men decide what a woman can and cannot do with their own body? Without women in legislative bodies how can we protect ourselves? We must have female voices defending our rights.”
South Carolina is among multiple states that took steps to drastically reduce access to abortion services after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
“State legislatures are now ground zero for some of the most consequential battles in American life, and at a time when local media outlets are disappearing,” notes a release. “Partisan constraints on elected officials have never been more intense. And yet these five women keep showing up. Conservative and progressive, white and Black, Republican, Independent and Democrat, they keep finding ways to work across a political divide that grows wider every year.”
Sister Senators “is more than the story of a single political act – but a blueprint for what true collaboration looks like when politicians put principles over parties,” the release continues. “A true fly-on-the-wall inside look into the halls of power in conservative South Carolina, this is a story about gender equity, women’s leadership, and democracy…”
Julianna Margulies with the ‘sister senators’ profiled in the documentary.
Courtesy of Dillon Deaton
Deadline understands the documentary is in early post-production. Margulies, winner of three Primetime Emmys for The Good Wife and ER, joins an executive producer slate that includes Ruth Ann Harnisch, Grace Cowan, Monika Parekh, Heidi & Chris Stolte, and Kelly Keenan Trumpbour.
“Having Julianna join this project means the world to us,” commented director Emily Harrold. “She brings a passion for telling complex nuanced stories of women fighting against immeasurable odds. We’re so excited to be working with her to bring this project into the world.”
Robin Hessman, fresh from executive producing the Oscar-winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin, is producing Sister Senators, alongside Emily Harrold. Margulies’ work in the documentary space includes executive producing the short Jack and Sam, directed by Jordan Matthew Horowitz, “a poignant film about two Holocaust survivors who were miraculously reunited after 80 years.”