‘Sister Senators’ Follows Battle Against Division, Misogyny in South Carolina’s Upper House: ‘We Are the Losers in This Toxic Environment’
As the November election looms, director Emily Harrold isn’t focusing on the U.S. political divide. Instead, she’s turning to five politicians who decided to work together despite their party affiliations: South Carolina’s “Sister Senators.”
Margie Bright Matthews, Katrina Shealy, Mia McLeod, Penry Gustafson and Sandy Senn started collaborating in the wake of the Dobbs decision – the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion – and because they realized there’s strength in numbers.
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“I’m from South Carolina and I didn’t realize there were only five women in the South Carolina senate. Honestly, I felt a little embarrassed. It’s just so rare to see people of different political persuasions that like and respect each other. It’s a real sisterhood,” says Harrold.
“Sister Senators,” presented at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival’s U.S. Docs showcase, is produced by Harrold and Robin Hessman, and co-produced by Rachel Denny. A Lynnwood Pictures and Global Neighborhood production, the film is exec produced by Ruth Ann Harnisch and co-exec produced by Ann Lovell.
“There are really two themes here [in the film]: the importance of working together across different political parties and the need for representation in politics: the need to elect more women. Katrina Shealy, the matriarch of ‘Sister Senators,’ was the only woman in the state senate for many years and that was considered okay,” notes Hessman.
“Politicians are willing not to make progress if it means they can score a point against the other side. We see that time and time again. We, the people, are the losers in this kind of bitterly divided, toxic environment. Nothing gets accomplished.”
Harrold adds: “Governments need to work for us and not just fight, but with polarization, that’s what we are witnessing. Whoever wins the presidency, what’s going to happen later in Congress? Is the President going to be able to get anything done? The answer is no.”
The Sisters don’t always agree, but they are able to talk. Not just about reproductive rights, but also about passing the anti-hate crimes bill.
“South Carolina doesn’t have one, which is ironic considering that one of their state senators was assassinated in a hate crime [Senator Clementa C. Pinckney]. They are doing things across many different issues,” underlines Harrold, while Hessman observes: “They are listening to the people they represent, listening to each other and they are finding common ground, which is almost unheard of. It also means they get things done. In politics, you often see male egos getting in the way.”
At the moment, Harrold is planning to finish the shoot in early 2025, when the country’s political reality will already change.
“We will be filming right into the beginning of the new political year. The new state senate will be seated around the time the inauguration happens. Margie Bright Matthews and Emily went to the DNC, where Emily filmed her watch Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech, so her being the candidate already changed things,” says Hessman.
Harrold talked about politicians before, in “While I Breathe, I Hope” and “In the Bubble with Jaime,” about Bakari Sellers and Jaime Harrison respectively. She approached “Sister Senators” through “another elected official.”
“My understanding is that they discussed it together and decided: ‘We are all in or we are not going to do it’,” she says.
“Honesty is usually the best policy, so we were very upfront with the senators. We have been with them for two years now, and not just at the State House,” she says, promising a “comprehensive look at who they are, what matters to them and what they care about.”
Or what they, or other women in leadership positions, still have to struggle with.
“I have been blessed to grow up in the 90s, when women had a lot of rights. The last five years have seen a reversal of that. I hadn’t fully realized what sexism was until I was at the State House. It’s overt. It’s overt in a way I didn’t think was happening now,” she admits.
“Often, and you can actually see it because their sessions are online, when they start speaking, especially on issues that affect women, men stand up and walk out. They end up speaking to empty rooms. Another thing has to do with clothing. One of them is going through menopause and she feels very warm, all the time. She was told she had to keep her jacket on and have her shoulders covered. She keeps a fan under her desk.”
“And a lot of older men are cold, so they keep the temperature of the senate the way they want it. Once, she took her jacket off – she was chastised for it,” adds Hessman.
“It’s an evergreen story about the need to have women at the table and about some unbelievable obstacles they face from men – in their own parties, too. I’m from a different generation than Emily, but I also grew up thinking a lot of the battles have been won. They’re not.”
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