Forward 50 2018

Julie Cohen

By PJ Grisar December 2, 2018

For The Love Of RBG

With all of the love out there for Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it was only a matter of time before a documentary came along. 2018’s “RBG” gave us a long-awaited cinematic look at RBG’s career that was met with near-universal acclaim — and even gave publicity to RBG’s personal trainer and his workout regiment for the 85-year-old jurist. One of the women behind the film is Julie Cohen, who co-directed and produced it with fellow Columbia School of Journalism professor Betsy West.

Cohen began her professional life as a producer for the courtroom television network Court TV in the 1990s. She left the world of TV to get a masters degree from Yale Law School, but returned to television in 1998 as a staff producer for “Dateline NBC.” For her work on that show, she eventually won an Individual Achievement Award for Best News Producer from American Women in Radio and Television.

In 2007 Cohen started her own production company, Better Than Fiction Productions. She has directed seven documentaries, including “American Veteran,” about a wounded army sergeant adapting to life on the home front, and “The Sturgeon Queens” about the multi-generational family behind the Lower East Side’s famous Russ and Daughters. (Ginsburg had a cameo appearance in the latter film.)

Cohen already has three New York regional Emmys, and she and West walked away from 2018’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards with a win for Best Political Documentary for “RBG.” With the big awards season on the way, we’re confident Cohen will nab more nominations and even some wins. If not, we’ll channel our inner RBG and dissent.

— PJ Grisar

PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO