Liberty: Mother of Exiles

Over four million people visit the Statue of Liberty annually. The most photographed statue in the world, the statue’s meaning is universal and represents freedom, hope and protest to people throughout the world. Liberty: Mother of Exiles casts new light on one of America’s most familiar symbols, revealing its little-known history, and celebrating it as an enduring beacon of hope for generations of immigrants. Directed and produced by Emmy winners Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (HBO’s Emmy-nominated Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures and Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking), the documentary begins with the groundbreaking ceremony for a new museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty, and follows legendary designer Diane von Furstenberg, “godmother” to the statue, who led the museum’s fundraising campaign, in her quest to discover how sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s dream became a reality and what the statue has meant to generations of people worldwide. The film reveals the statue’s unexpected history – a story filled with many false starts as well as significant financial and technical challenges that were ultimately solved in innovative ways. Like most Americans, Lady Liberty has its own immigrant story, and over the course of the film, von Furstenberg, who came to the U.S. from Belgium, reveals how intimately connected her background is with the statue. Her admiration for Lady Liberty began with her mother, who gave birth to Diane after surviving the Auschwitz labor camps and often called her daughter her “torch of freedom.” The fashion icon has long admired the 305-foot, toga-wearing statue’s strength and femininity and recalls first seeing Lady Liberty when she arrived in New York by boat in the 1970s. The film follows von Furstenberg on her journey towards discovery, reading French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s diaries, and traveling to France to meet with descendants of Édouard de Laboulaye, who inspired Bartholdi to build the statue, and Gustave Eiffel, who designed its metal framework. The ways in which the statue’s existence affects Americans is palpable through encounters with dozens of people, like those von Furstenberg spoke to, who share a connection to the colossal figure. From street artists to factory workers, the film’s robust cast of characters include a French metal artisan who came to America to work on the restoration of the statue in the 1980s and never left, workers in China who make the souvenir statues found in gift shops all over the world, a Russian graffiti artist whose street art prominently features the statue, and families who lived on the island for years until their homes were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy – all underscoring von Furstenberg’s notion that Lady Liberty “belongs to everyone,” as well as Bartholdi’s own idea that the statue should represent the unity of mankind.