Lady Bird: A History

Compiled, Written, and Presented by Vania Ding

Lady Bird is Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut and follows a teenage girl, self-named Lady Bird, during her last year of Catholic high school in her hometown of Sacramento, California. At its core, it is a coming-of-age story examined through a strained mother-daughter relationship and the dynamic between a teenager and her hometown. Drawing heavily from Gerwig’s own childhood in Sacramento, Lady Bird is a raw and genuine snapshot of a girl growing up and finding her path in life. 

Gerwig’s original script, titled Mothers and Daughters, ranged around 350 pages before being edited down to the one hour and thirty-five minute runtime. Her desired film aesthetic was to “look like a memory,” harking back to her early 2000s childhood through the imagery and music used in the film. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2017 to a standing ovation and was nominated at the 90th Academy Awards for Best Picture and four other categories. It received the award for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy (for Saoirse Ronan’s performance) at the 75th Golden Globes. 

When asked what she wanted the audience to take away from the film, Gerwig responded:

“I want them to call their moms.”