Some know her as the feisty grandma who served in the New Jersey legislature.

But former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg spent her life as a no nonsense advocate who wasn't afraid to take on the political establishment or stand up to bullies in the process.

From marriage equality to reproductive rights and her work uncovering the Bridgegate scandal, Weinberg's career is captured through the lens of a new documentary.

Politics is a mother.

Raising hell is part of the job.

It's premiering this weekend at the Montclair Film Festival and directed by Weinberg's daughter Francine, who wanted to show that at 80 years old, a time when most women feel invisible.

Her mother was at her most powerful.

Take a look.

When people ask me about that longevity, I say it is a combination of vitamin C and a little hostility.

It wasn't always easy having.

Her as a mother, but somewhere along the way, her career became bigger than the both of us.

New Jersey politics is tough.

It's rough.

Can you guys please take the bat out of her for once?

She's this adorable 78 year old lady, State Senator from New Jersey.

Turns out Chris Christie once said to the press, you guys ought to take a bat to her.

Loretta and Francine Weinberg GRAFF join me now.

Francine.

Senator Weinberg, thank you both for sitting down with me.

Frankly, let me ask you first, why did you start capturing footage of your mother's career, of her at work?

What was your intended goal?

Well, I will say that this really started when I was about five years old.

And I am an observer of life.

And even at that young age, I would look at my mother and I would say she is not like all the other mothers.

She was not a Girl Scout leader.

She did not join the PTA.

She did not take us to the park after school and including smartphones.

I just knew someday this story needed to be told.

Well, she didn't take you to the park because she was busy taking on the world and the New Jersey political establishment.

But did you envision it coming together in this format?

I mean, you take us through some of those early years.

And Senator, what was it like for you to see your work captured and encapsulated like this?

First of all, I have to make one editorial correction.

I did join the PTA and I once even ran a PTA program.

So there were little, little moments that.

Oh, yeah, how long.

Were you assuming I might not have captured, but how long this kind of involved?

And somebody asked me just the other day, did you having to give permission to your daughter to do this film?

And I said, Well, I never really did.

She just before I knew it, we were in the middle of a film.

So I'm very proud of her.

I'm very proud of the work that she did here, really on her own, the writing, the producing everything, but carrying the camera herself.

And it captures a snapshot of my career.

The issues around Bridgegate, which I guess is a snapshot maybe of the years I was in the legislature and a very interesting part of dealing with New Jersey politics as a woman.

And at that point in my career as an older woman, the.

Two big areas and I don't want to give away the entire documentary, but of course, the two big areas where you focus on the work with marriage equality.

And then, of course, in investigating and uncovering the Bridgegate scandal.

I mean, as a journalist, it never really occurred to me.

But for instance, you point out in the film that when most are maybe considering retiring, your mom was really at the pinnacle of her career.

Why was it important for you to show that?

Well, what I tell people is this is not a legacy project.

This is not a love letter to my mother.

There are a lot easier ways to do that.

This is a love letter to people, women that especially women, as we get older, we are sort of our voices are kind of invisible and we are made to feel invisible.

And my mother was on the 70 when she became a state senator.

She was on the 75 when she ran for lieutenant governor Jon Corzine.

And she was almost 80 when she kneecapped, as I like to say.

Chris Christie and his presidential aspirations.

And this is a love letter to all of those people who, if you want to take care of your grandchildren, I have no judgment.

Go ahead and do that.

But if you are called to do something, get in the game, because the world needs you and you are not invisible.

I mean, Senator, you've also been extremely vocal on situations with New Jersey Transit.

I mean, there was the smart gun bills, you know, Planned Parenthood, reproductive rights, a whole feast, if you will, of of issues and topics.

What do you think New Jersey is left with now that you have left the political scene in that way?

I mean, there's no Loretta Weinberg sitting in at New Jersey Transit and Port Authority hearings anymore.

Well, I think there are people there to carry out this legacy.

It is moving not only the passion for the issue you're trying to move forward, but the discipline to kind of stick with it.

Nothing in New Jersey worthwhile happens overnight, at least very little worthwhile happens overnight.

Lots of things that would not necessarily things we want.

So it takes a discipline.

And I use marriage equality.

I was over the course of 20, almost 20 years before we got from the beginning to, yes, marriage equality is the law of the land.

You're in New Jersey.

So it's the ability to step over the roadblocks and keep pushing.

And there aren't, I guess, a lot of people who have that kind of discipline, But there aren't people in the legislature.

So my work with that, I keep on encouraging that.

I know it's not fun to go to Newark to speak before the New Jersey Transit board, particularly when you don't get a warm welcome at the other end.

It's not always fun to keep taking on the smoking lobby like people are doing in the legislature right now.

Now it needs to be because it's not always fun taking on the medical insurance companies to guarantee 48 hours for their new moms, but nothing in these areas ever came easily.

Senator Loretta Weinberg, Francine Weinberg Graff, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you, Brianna.

Thanks, Brianna.