Little Women today

No, I was not backstage but this is a very nice picture from last night I stole off the internet 

"There's never been a better moment to be a woman who wants to write or a woman who wants to direct," Greta Gerwig. 

That's how the writer and director of the new film adaptation of Little Women, Greta Gerwig, concluded the Q and A last night after the screening of her film.

Again, not my picture but I was there!

I hurried to the car and scribbled the words in a little notebook I keep in my purse, a notebook who's cover is emblazoned with the word 'wise'. Wise words indeed. Even if Greta was answering a question about how she feels that there still aren't more movies like hers in the world, movies with groups of women at the center, movies where women's and girls stories fill the screen, movies where women write and direct.

She was right, there has never been a better moment. Even though, as she went on to say, it's still not a great moment. But we're further than we've ever been, we're better off then we've ever been. It's better now, and it'll be even better for the next generation. But sometimes, sometimes it's still really really hard.

I sat there last night, next to my sister, and watched the story of these young women unfold. Men hopped in and out of several scenes but mostly, the story was there's to tell. These women. And it was glorious.

It made us cry (yes, even Angela!), it made us laugh out loud, and at one point, the audience even audibly gasped! It was that good.

I'd seen the 1994 adaptation back in theaters with my grandmother, my sister, and my cousins John and Nicole. I knew the story well. I've had a hardcover copy of the original novel on my shelf since I was in single digits. I knew what was going to happen. But Greta took the characters and infused them with something new, something so...wise.

At the Q and A she spoke about how she'd researched the author Louisa May Alcott while writing the screenplay and how she wanted Alcott's spirit to resonate through the film. Here was a woman who wrote a novel back when women didn't write novels, and if they did, they weren't treated well in the selling of said novels, and I love how Greta captured that part of the story in her film.

My own photo! 

One more thing -- we watched this film in a giant theater (the Directors' Guild theater, very nice!) filled at least half with men. And to know that these men, all around us, were laughing and wiping their eyes too (yes, I saw you friend in the seat next to me), well it's just a reminder of what the character of Amy says in the film, maybe women's stories need to be told more. We need to know about girls and women. We need to hear their stories in order to value them.

I'm so glad I got to watch this particular story last night. And afterwards to hear Greta, Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, and Laura Dern talk about what it was like to tell this particular story. There really has never been a better moment...