TIME

NO. 7 | THE TRAILBLAZER PATTY JENKINS

THE DIRECTOR REDEFINING HOW THE WORLD SEES WOMEN

THE FIRST MAN WONDER WOMAN EVER sees, at least in the record-setting movie version of her story, is a fighter pilot. He crashes, she saves him, and that sets in motion her departure from the safe all-female island she grew up on. The first man director Patty Jenkins ever saw was also a fighter pilot: her father William Jenkins. He also crashed, during a combat-training exercise when Patty was 7 years old. He was not saved, and she grew up in her own tribe of Amazons—with her feminist mother and two sisters.

The parallels between the director and the subject of the most lucrative superhero origin story in history don’t end there. Jenkins is also related to a god: in her case, it’s acting deity Richard Burton, her father’s second cousin. She’s not afraid to travel at speed:

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