Prominent filmmakers' latest works make the connection from the past to a divisive present
Last October, director Mimi Leder had just begun shooting "On the Basis of Sex," a biopic about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when the news hit of sexual misconduct accusations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
In that instant, Leder realized that her period film - which centers on Ginsburg's early legal battles in the 1960s and '70s against gender discrimination - was suddenly on a collision course with the zeitgeist.
"It was a moment I'll never forget - there it was, the crack that just broke open," Leder said. "The movie was important before but now it was more important than ever."
As this era of intense partisan division builds to the crescendo of the midterm elections, Leder is one of several prominent filmmakers, including Spike Lee, Jason Reitman and Adam McKay, who have been looking to political events and figures from decades
