Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Julia Reichert, a Wright State University film professor for 28 years who won an Academy Award and two Emmys as a trailblazing documentary filmmaker died at her home in Yellow Springs while in Hospice care.
Reichert, 76, died Thursday evening, said her daughter Lela Klein.
For 50 years, Reichert, along with longtime collaborators Steven Bognar and Jim Klein, illuminated humanity, particularly America’s working-class, across compelling themes of feminism, family, politics and economics. In recent years, she continued her life’s passion while battling terminal cancer.
A longtime resident of Yellow Springs, Reichert received her first Academy Award nomination in 1977 with Klein and Miles Mogulescu for “Union Maids.” She was nominated again with Klein in 1984 for “Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists.” Partnering with Bognar, she received an Academy Award nomination in 2010 for “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” She ultimately won the Oscar in 2020 with Bognar for “American Factory.” She also shared two Emmys with Bognar for “A Lion in the House” (2006) and “American Factory.”
Additional credits include ”Sparkle” (2012), “Making Morning Star” (2015) and “9 to 5: The Story of a Movement” (2020). Most recently she and Bognar superbly profiled the career of comedian Dave Chappelle in “8:46″ (2020) and “Dave Chappelle: Live in Real Life” (2021).
In particular, “Growing Up Female,” Reichert and Klein’s groundbreaking 1971 documentary showcasing how girls and women are socialized, was selected in 2011 by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry of historically significant films. The film served as Reichert’s senior project at Antioch College.
