Still Working 9 to 5 is a new documentary from co-producers and co-directors Camille Hardman and Gary Lane, with Gary’s Twin brother Larry Lane and Steve Summers, Dolly’s creative manager as Executive Producers. The film is edited by female editors Oreet Rees and Elisa Bonora and explores the iconic and groundbreaking 1980 film 9-5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. The documentary features a full original cast reunion with Fonda, Tomlin, Parton, and Dabney Coleman, who played the original sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, Mr. Hart.
The documentary explores the inspiration behind the film and title song, as well as its lasting impact on popular culture. The documentary also explores 40 years of the fim’s legacy that dives into the 9 to 5 TV series. In it, interviewing Oscar winner Rita Moreno who played TV’s Violet Newstead, as well Oscar winner Allison Janney who played Violet Newstead in the 2009 Broadway musical of 9 to 5.
The film perfectly mirrors the 40 years of the working women’s movement and highlights the intersection of key feminist touchstones. What makes this documentary so powerful and emotive is that while it has an in depth exploration of its origin and conception, including subsequent spinoffs, the Lane brothers examine the social climate and movements that it gave birth to.
In the film, viewers are introduced to the social movements that made 9 to 5 not only possible, but so important for its time. What the Lane brothers accomplish in their documentary is the revelation that 9 to 5 was a direct response to 2nd wave feminism in the States and the story and much of the character’s experiences in it were directly inspired by the hardships and tribulations women in the workforce were facing in late 1970s capitalist America.
The documentary features a new version of the classic song, this time performed by Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton herself as a slow, harrowing duet. Dolly specifically requested to re-record the song in a new, somber way, stripping the song of its fast paced, country roots as to show the progress women still have to make in the workforce and Western culture. By ending the film with this new arrangement, it beckons to listeners to not give up the good fight and become complacent, but rather continue to fight for the causes that inspired 9 to 5 and its subsequent adaptations.
While the film perfectly examines the film and Dolly’s title song, what makes it so powerful is that it shows that 9 to 5 transcends film and song, and instead is a movement that is still growing. What Still Working 9 to 5 reveals to its viewers is that while progress has been made for women in Western society, so much work is yet to be done and women are still working hard 9-5.
Still working 9-5 is currently showing at festivals and screenings across the US, but you can stream the original film that started it all on Disney+ in Europe.
