Cinema Cafe with Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival
Published on Jan 25, 2020
Screenwriters Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent stopped by Cinema Cafe to chat with Jon Korn about THE NOWHERE INN, their absurdist meta-film playing in the Midnight section at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in Park City. Presented by Variety.
The only reason she’s a Supreme Court justice, not an operatic diva? She’s a monotone.
by Serena Haas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The queen, the Notorious RBG, the icon we all love, the woman every liberal would throw their body in front of a bullet to save. The woman who delivered the iconic statement of, “There will be enough women on the Supreme Court when there are nine.”
On Sunday, I had the incredible opportunity to see and hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg speak with NPR’s Nina Totenberg. After waiting in line for two and a half hours, I was finally ushered into the auditorium quietly. in I sat in awe, as RBG delivered witty, brilliant, hilarious jokes, while answering questions and commenting on the status quo.
Things I learned about Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her panel presentation:
• Her favorite movie is Call Me By Your Name.
• She was 11 when she first discovered opera.
• She loves modern art and has many paintings and modern art installations in the judge’s chamber. When
asked about the other justices, she said, “My colleagues’ artistic tastes consist of two things: portraits of
long dead white men, and landscape scenes.”
• She likes Kate McKinnon and her portrayal of RBG on Saturday Night Live, and wishes she could say
“That’s a Ginsburn” whenever she wanted.
• Although her fellow justices are “judiciously silent about the Notorious RBG.” She loves the title.
• She founded the ACLU’s Women Project whilst being a law professor and raising two children.•She was one of nine women in her Harvard Law School class of over 400.• She would often have to pinch herself very hard to keep from laughing out loud at Justice Scalia’s jokes.
Justice Ginsburg told the audience about an experience she had while in law school when she was also busy raising her son, James. She said she described him as ‘lively’, while everyone else called him ‘hyperactive’. James was regularly getting into trouble at school, and the school would always call her. One day, she picked up the phone while doing casework, and said “This child has two parents. Please alternate calls, it’s my husband’s turn.” After that she got maybe one call per semester. She said it was because they had to think long and hard about taking a man from his work to come to the school, but would never hesitate to take the mother away. This story showed me yet again how Justice Ginsburg’s dedication to hard work no matter the circumstance has always been evident.
When asked about her health and her future as a Justice, she told the audience she is in very good health, and “as long as I can do the job full steam, I will be here.” Currently, she has hired clerks every term until 2020. This not only brings about a feeling of immense relief, but hope, excitement, and optimism for what the future holds with Justice Ginsburg. Hearing her speak about her future and that she is not going anywhere anytime soon is incredibly inspiring, especially in the face of today’s administration, because it means that people just like me will have a voice to represent us in the federal government. This is imperative to me because many times, I feel like I don’t. The government is supposed to be protecting all citizens, but as time goes on, it becomes apparent they’re only protecting the citizens that are like them; white, wealthy, straight/cis men. Justice Ginsburg represents and fights for the minority, and we need her now more than ever.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is someone we can all relate to and look up to, whether it be her childhood love of Gone With the Wind, her strong headed aspiration to continue to do her job until she no longer can, her love of pop culture, her hilarious jokes, being the voice of the people, and a voice I aspire to have. Seeing Ruth Bader Ginsburg at this panel was something that moved me to tears. She was hilarious, she was sharply rebellious, and everything I hope to be in the world.
