Margulies Joins Doc on SC's 5 Women Senators
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- Julianna Margulies has signed on as executive producer of "Sister Senators," a documentary about the only five women serving in the overwhelmingly male South Carolina State Senate.
- Emily Harrold is directing the film, which follows Republican senators Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn, and Penry Gustafson, Democrat Margie Bright Matthews, and Independent Mia McLeod as they formed an unlikely cross-party alliance.
- The documentary centers on the five women's collaboration to block a near-total abortion ban in South Carolina, one of multiple states that drastically reduced abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
- Robin Hessman, fresh off executive producing the Oscar-winning documentary "Mr. Nobody Against Putin," is producing "Sister Senators" alongside Harrold; the film is currently in early post-production.
- Margulies, a three-time Primetime Emmy winner for "The Good Wife" and "ER," said she joined after seeing footage and was compelled by women who 'put people before partisan politics,' adding: 'How can 41 men decide what a woman can and cannot do with their own body?'
- Margulies' prior documentary work includes executive producing "Jack and Sam," a short about two Holocaust survivors miraculously reunited after 80 years.
Why it matters: Five women are the sole female presence in the South Carolina State Senate, where 41 men — per Margulies' own statement — hold the balance of power over women's bodily autonomy, making their successful block of a near-total abortion ban a rare concrete blueprint for cross-party collaboration. Margulies' star power amplifies a story unfolding in state legislatures that the film's release notes call 'ground zero' for consequential American battles, precisely as local media coverage of those bodies shrinks.
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