The directors of Liberty: Mother Of Exiles on using The Statue Of Liberty as our moral compass

World Of Wonder founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are well known as executive producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the groundbreaking reality competition show that helped usher drag culture into the mainstream. But beyond that, the pair is also responsible for some eye-opening documentaries like The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, Inside Deep Throat, Party Monster, and its feature adaptation of the same name starring Macauly Culkin. For their latest documentary, Bailey and Barbato have turned their attention to another quintessentially American story: The Statue Of Liberty. Premiering Thursday, October 17 on HBO, Liberty: Mother Of Exiles delves into the statue’s little known history, guided by fashion designer and activist Diane von Furstenberg. We visited Bailey and Barbato at the World Of Wonder Production offices in Los Angeles to learn about the statue’s surprising original design, and how Liberty evolved against the backdrop of our fraught political climate (hint: production started in October 2016).