Last Thursday night, Staff Writer Nadia Lam attended the documentary “Satisfied,” screened at the Athena Film Festival, and stayed behind for a Q&A session with Tony Award winner Renee Elise Goldsberry and co-director Melissa Haizlip.

Last Thursday night, I attended the opening night of the Athena Film Festival, an event held annually by Barnard College, dedicated to featuring films centered around women empowerment.​​ This year was the Athena Film Festival’s 15th anniversary, and the opening night film was Satisfied (2024).

Directed by Chris Bolan and Melissa Haizlip, Satisfied documents actress Renee Elise Goldsberry’s struggle balancing family life and her career. The film premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival last June. When asked in the post-screening discussion about her plans for releasing the documentary, Goldberry announced that she is excited to potentially pair the release of Satisfied with the release of her upcoming album, which includes several songs featured in the documentary’s soundtrack.

Satisfied does not solely explore Goldsberry’s artistic achievements, but also her struggles as a mother who had to manage long, rigorous working hours performing on the stage alongside taking care of her children and experiencing the grief of miscarriages. The film opens with Goldsberry being offered to audition for the role of Angelica Schuyler in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton. She nearly passes on the audition but is ultimately convinced to audition after hearing the draft of Miranda rapping Angelica Schuyler’s verse on Satisfied. There was friendly laughter amongst the audience when we heard Miranda rapping in that distinctive way of his, and we watched as Hamilton went from being in workshop to an off-Broadway private show, then an off-Broadway public show, and finally on-Broadway. The unique tone of the documentary is instantly established in the opening scenes, with its precise mixture of vertically shot candid videos filmed by Goldsberry, archival footage, and intimate interviews between Goldsberry and the important figures in her life. 

There are moments of laughter, but also moments that tug at the audience’s heartstrings. It is clear the documentary aims to humanize and authentically narrate Goldsberry’s life, choosing not to shy away from Goldsberry’s internal struggles, but instead, incorporate these moments of vulnerability in the story’s arc. The camera captures personal conversations between Goldsberry and her husband Alexis Johnson, who provides unwavering support all throughout Goldsberry’s journey. He stands by her side when she goes through several miscarriages, when she gives birth to her son Benjamin after playing Mimi Márquez in the musical Rent, when the family adopts their daughter Brielle, when Goldsberry has doubts about performing in Hamilton after a pregnancy scare, and when Goldsberry’s career means she is rarely home to see her children. In another emotional scene, Goldsberry visits her high school theatre teacher, Dr. Charles Geroux, to whom the documentary is dedicated. We get an understanding of Goldsberry’s childhood, where she was often cast by Geroux as the lead in high school theater productions and encouraged to pursue her passions of theater in a predominantly white student body. 

The pacing of Satisfied is deliberate, purposely portraying Goldsberry’s conflict through the juxtaposition of quiet, slower-paced moments at home and frantic cinematography conveying the energy of the Broadway stage. The grand finale features Goldsberry taking home the 2016 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. The film’s buildup to the moment makes it heartwarming and moving when we see all of Goldsberry’s efforts pay off. 

Satisfied is a powerful narrative of Goldberry’s life as a performer, as well as a mother. During the discussion, Goldsberry emphasized that the worst outcome of the documentary would be if it turned into a vanity project, which is why she was adamant about sharing all her insecurities and including deeply personal topics regarding her miscarriages to break the silence around such taboos. Goldsberry recalls being the only mother in the Hamilton cast and how she wanted to share her personal story, especially to highlight the universal struggles of motherhood and challenge the notion that Black women are not allowed to show vulnerability.

After queuing in a long line, I was able to meet Goldsberry herself. I told her how obsessed I have been with her since the release of Hamilton back in 2015 and how Satisfied has truly moved me. Goldsberry is not only an artist who pours her heart into everything she does, but also a strong woman and a devoted mother who uses her story to inspire others. 

I told Goldsberry I was writing for Bwog and asked her what she would want to tell the Barnumbia community. She responded that she had never been inside Barnard’s campus until today, but that she loves the Athena Film Festival’s mission of championing stories from women of all backgrounds and would love to come back another time. 

Image via Athena Film Festival