By Emily Wilson
Director Kamala Lopez’s film tells the story of the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, one who bridged the suffrage, civil liberties, anti-war and women’s movements of 20th century America.
Throughout her life, feminist and pacifist Jeannette Rankin made history. In 1916, the people of Montana elected her to represent them in Congress, the first woman in the legislature. Rankin co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union, voted against U.S. entry into World War I and was the only Congress member to vote against the entering World War II. Rankin remained active until her death in 1973 at 92, leading a group of women in a protest against the Vietnam War and staying connected to the women’s movement.
Director Lopez on the set with Jeanmarie Simpson as Jeannette Rankin. Photo by Sarah Gochrach.
When actress, activist and director Kamala Lopez saw a one-woman show about Rankin in 2005—“A Single Woman” by peace activist and theater artist Jeanmarie Simpson—she couldn’t believe she’d never heard of Rankin. The story so moved Lopez that she determined to get it to a broader audience.
“She’s an amazing, incredible role model,” Lopez said. “Women couldn’t vote and she got herself elected to change that. That is such out of the box thinking. If more girls knew about this instead of always hearing about Paris Hilton, we’d be getting somewhere.”
Lopez said one of the things that impressed her about Rankin was her bravery in standing up for what she believed. She held on to her anti-war stance when it became extremely unpopular.
“Every other person in Congress voted to go to war after Pearl Harbor—it was just reactive,” Lopez said. “She had to hide in a phone booth in the Capitol until guards took her out. Then there was a smear campaign against her as being anti-Semitic after she had been lobbying to let Jewish refugees into the country. She was so brave. She didn’t give a rat’s ass what anybody thought of her. She knew in her bones what she thought was right. It’s a lonely road and people don’t appreciate it, especially when you’re female. You’re a battle ax or a difficult broad, and we get intimidated by that.”
Lopez said another thing she admired about Rankin was that she didn’t take no for an answer.
“I really related to that,” Lopez said. “That’s been my pattern my whole life. I just don’t do it. I was a Hispanic actress when nobody was doing that. I had to play whores and maids and gang members, but I did it. The theater department at Yale kicked me out every semester because the chair hated me, but I kept going back. I just went around him. This one guy isn’t going to stop me. And that’s how Jeanette was. She was like, ‘How are we going to skin the cat because the cat is going to get skinned’”
Lopez used her determination and drive to make a 90-minute movie about Rankin, also called “A Single Woman,” on an extremely limited budget. Lopez didn’t have the $90,000 a week it cost to rent a soundstage in Los Angeles, so she convinced Mikel Elliott, the owner of Quixote Studios, to let her use it for free. That gave her only four days to shoot the movie, which starts near the end of Rankin’s life and goes backwards.
“He said, ‘If you want to do it over Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll only charge you for the person who has to stay there and turn on stuff and the air conditioning,’” Lopez said. “That meant we had to do 85 scenes in four days. The hardest thing was aging the actress. I storyboarded out every frame and we tried to do them in one shot or if absolutely necessary, two.”
Lopez got famous friends involved such as Martin Sheen, who narrates; Judd Nelson, who plays a Jewish journalist asking Rankin, played by Simpson, about her stance against World War II; and Patricia Arquette, who narrates a story about Native Americans and pioneers that was very important to Rankin. Lopez also convinced singer Joni Mitchell to let Lopez use her songs “The Circle Game” and “Woodstock” in the movie.
Lopez started her production company, Heroica Films, to make movies about and for women, and she does a lot of work with girls in gangs and inner city schools. Jeannette Rankin’s spirit and story speaks to these girls, Lopez said.
“These are young women from the ghetto, and you think they will be bored or make fun of it, but they love it,” Lopez said. “It blows them away. That’s always been my mission with these girls—to show them they can do it and give them a path to do it.”
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.
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9 Comments
What a wonderful story about not one, but two incredible women…
Kamy Lopez is so very interesting. She is an Equality Activist and a grand storyteller. Her movie about Jeannette Rankin gives me hope that girls will learn about this fantastic Congresswoman who voted against war.
I was moved about reading about Lopez’s days at Yale and the making of the film. Wow..this is really a story within a story. One day we will be hearing about the major accomplishments of Kamala Lopez.
This is an inspiring story on two fronts. Of course there’s Jeanette Rankin — why the hell don’t we know of her from high school? We’re taught about other “firsts,” but not the first woman elected to the House of Representaives? But I also love Kamela’s verve The bit about having the studio over thanksgiving is wonderful or obstinately attending classes after the chair of the theater department has kicked you out. Great to read about two strong women.
This is a a story of incredible foresight and courage. It reminds me of a story my mother told me about their struggles as feminists(though they did not call themselves feminists)in the early 1950s in colonial Kenya. They wanted to get scholarships for girls so they could get more girls into school. Now I so wish we could have filmed it. May be we’ll get a young woman film maker to try her hand at it. It still does not cease to amaze me that women have always been fighting for their rights but, like Jeannette Rankin, their acts of courage were virtually eclipsed and kept from the the heroic stories of change makers of their times. The were also women of courage born in 1908 and 1910 but their acts of rebellion and courage remain outside the history of the struggle for independence. These stories deserve to be told over and over again for generations.
This is ridiculous!
First of all, the play was NOT a “one woman show,” it was a two-person show. Jeanmarie Simpson played Jeannette Rankin and her (then) husband played Everyman (over 80 parts!).
Second, it was Jeanmarie who did all of the research and work for the play and who traveled with it for years and hundreds of performances.
And THIRD – Kamala was not “friends” with Martin Sheen OR Joni Mitchell. Both of those artists thank Frank Dorrel, very well-know Los Angeles Peace Activist, who repeatedly contacted them about the project and THEN they thank Jeannette Rankin for her compelling and irresistible story.
SHAME ON Kamala Lopez for trying to take the credit for someone else’s life’s work!
Thank you for that, Sonia.
The way this has all played out is extremely disorienting. It is not as disturbing to me that Kamala and her entourage want to give her all the credit as much as it is so karmic-ly hurtful to herself that she is trying to maintain an entirely dishonest posture, leaving out of the picture Frank Dorrel who organized and hosted three fundraisers for the film project. The peace and justice community was so ready to embrace the project and would have given it the wide distributive juice it needed. But to disrespect Frank Dorrel and to take credit for a peace-activist’s life’s work is simply not supportable.
I will continue working to ensure Jeannette’s legacy is re-membered in this reprehensible climate.
This was an awesome article. Jeannette Rankin an extraordinary woman was my grandmother’s cousin. I wish I had gotten to know her. She passed away when I was 18 years old living in Michigan.
I had not known that there had been a movie made about her life. I will be watching it by the weekend. Thank you for this information.
Great Article!
Jeannette Rankin is featured as Hero of the week over at MoralHeroes.org you should check it out and share it with your friends!
http://moralheroes.org/jeannette-rankin