Patricia Clarkson (Cast, ‘Lilly Ledbetter’), who is from New Orleans, attended this hometown screening. Additional notable guests included Bryan Batt (AMC’s Mad Men), Terence Blanchard (Academy Award nominee and jazz trumpeter/composer), Helena Moreno (President of the New Orleans City Council), Henry Muñoz (Producer, Weird: The Al Yankovic Storyand In The Summers)
About Lilly:
The film is based on the remarkable true story of Lilly Ledbetter, a hard-working Alabama tire factory supervisor whose singular goal is to lift her family into the middle class. Having grown up in poverty, she endures a work environment plagued by pervasive harassment for the sake of the best paycheck in the county. As retirement approaches, Lilly discovers that the system had been cheating her, paying her close to half of what the men with the same jobs were earning. Outraged, Lilly fights this injustice to the Supreme Court, the corridors of Congress and eventually The White House all while powerful forces try to shut her down. Lilly follows the transformation of an ordinary citizen into the face of an issue, illuminating the impact a single, courageous person can have.
Ledbetter passed away last October, just days after the film’s world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival. In her obituary, The New York Times described her as “a national symbol of unequal treatment of women in the workplace and a hero to many.” In a statement, President Obama shared that “Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting…”
