Archive for the 'Documentary' Category

Kimberly Reed’s documentary, Prodigal Sons, has been a long time in the making. Growing up life seemed so perfect.  She was born as Paul McKerrow, the high school quarterback, one of the most popular guys in school. But inside, Paul felt conflicted about his gender identity. So after high school, he moved to San Francisco and experimented with living as a woman, before making the full transition to life as a woman. This change served as a major aggravation to her brother Marc, who struggled for years as the adopted son. Marc’s resulting mental instability from a brain injury at 21 only exasperated his idealization of the past and Paul’s life from twenty-five years ago.

Living as a successful editor and filmmaker in S.F. and New York, she returned to her hometown of Helena, MT for her high school reunion, and a re-connection with Marc. The film is intense, raw, and gives the audience an open intimacy into the lives of Marc and Kimberly, and finding that they have more in common than they originally thought. Prodigal Sons opens Friday, February 26 in NYC.

How did you come to recording your journey and making a narrative comparing yours and your brother’s lives?

I had recently transitioned, this is probably about sixteen or seventeen years ago, I’m walking down the street in San Francisco, and I see somebody who I used to work with. And I went up and had that sort of shocking thing of like, “Hey, it’s me,” not wanting to be nosy. And it was a dear friend, his name was Bob Hawk, we worked at Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, supporting independent film and artists. And we’ve been in touch ever since then; he’s an executive producer on the film. But a couple of weeks after that, he kept saying, “you have to make a film about this.” And at the time, I was like “No, no, I’m not going to talk about this, this is not going to happen.”  But both of us knew there was going to be a time when it was going to happen. So fast-forward to 2005, when I finally get up the nerve to go to my high school reunion, he was the first person I called. So in a lot of ways, the journey to make this film goes back there. In other ways, the journey to make this film starts with that decision to go to the high school reunion, which I think triggered a lot of other things.

How did people in your family adapt to being filmed? Did they request that somethings not be filmed?

Well, first of all, my dad was always shooting, so I think everyone was already used to the camera. I took on that mantle, and I was always shooting family gatherings, which I think was my way of assessing a lot of that stuff.  I was more comfortable behind the camera.  But also I think it was just how I processed the world, when I would get upset or melancholy, I would go out and shoot films, that’s what I would always do.  The family was always used to me running around with a camera so at the reunion when we were going to shoot it, it was like, “OK.”  I never had to convince anyone. I’m really lucky that I have a family that’s very trusting. The D.P., John Keitel was good at sinking into the scene and disappearing, he’s a vérité shooter, and that really helped a lot.

Continue reading ‘Guest Post: Interview with Kimberly Reed, Director of Prodigal Sons by Melissa Silvestri’

Mabel Normand

In 1989 Congress created the National Film Registry which “spotlights the importance of protecting America’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.”  Here’s what it does:

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant, to be preserved for all time. These films are not selected as the “best” American films of all time; rather, they are chosen as works of enduring importance to American culture.

Here are the list of women directed films that made it to the list.  Most seem quite small, obscure and old that I have no idea if they can be seen anywhere.

(All descriptions from the Library of Congress web site)

Mabel’s Blunder (1914)

Mabel Normand, who wrote, directed and starred in “Mabel’s Blunder,” was the most successful of the early silent screen comediennes. The film tells the tale of a young woman who is secretly engaged to the boss’ son. When a new employee catches the young man’s eye, a jealous Mabel dresses up as a chauffeur to spy on them, which leads to a series of mistaken identities. The film showcases Normand’s spontaneous and intuitive playfulness and her ability to be both romantically appealing and boisterously funny.

Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)

“Quasi at the Quackadero” has earned the term “unique.” Once described as a “mixture of 1930s Van Beuren cartoons and 1960s R. Crumb comics with a dash of Sam Flax,” and a descendent of the “Depression-era funny animal cartoon,” Sally Cruikshank’s wildly imaginative tale of odd creatures visiting a psychedelic amusement park careens creatively from strange to truly wacky scenes. It became a favorite of the Midnight Movie circuit in the 1970s. Cruikshank later created animation sequences for “Sesame Street,” the 1986 film “Ruthless People” and the “Cartoon Land” sequence in the 1983 film “Twilight Zone: The Movie.”

The Red Book (1994)

Renowned experimental filmmaker and theater/installation artist Janie Geiser’s work is known for its ambiguity, explorations of memory and emotional states and exceptional design. She describes “The Red Book” as “an elliptical, pictographic animated film that uses flat, painted figures and collage elements in both two and three dimensional settings to explore the realms of memory, language and identity from the point of view of a woman amnesiac.”

Scratch and Crow (1995)

Helen Hill’s student film was made at the California Institute of the Arts. Consistent with the short films she made from age 11 until her death at 36, this animated short work is filled with vivid color and a light sense of humor. It is also a poetic and spiritual homage to animals and the human soul.

A Study in Reds (1932)

This polished amateur film by Miriam Bennett spoofs women’s clubs and the Soviet menace in the 1930s. While listening to a tedious lecture on the Soviet threat, Wisconsin Dells’ Tuesday Club members fall asleep and find themselves laboring in an all-women collective in Russia under the unflinching eye of the Soviet special police.

And two women centric films Jezebel and Mrs. Miniver were also included.

Full list here

I recently saw this very interesting documentary by Hannah Rothschild, The Jazz Baroness, about her great aunt Nica who spent over 28 years as Thelonious Monk’s best friend.  I was kind of surprised by the story because, of course, I had heard of Monk, but had never heard of Nica.  For those who don’t know who the Rothschilds are, they are Britain’s most prominent Jewish family.  We’re talking dynasty.  Pannonica (Nica) started out her life following the normal route of a wealthy woman, got married and had a passel of kids.  But her life was irrevocably changed when she a friend played her Monk’s Round Midnight and she was hooked and spent the next two years trying to find him.  After meeting, the two became inseparable (though there is no confirmation that they were lovers) with her supporting him sometimes financially, but mostly through her love and admiration.  She even took the fall for him and almost went to jail for many years when pot was found in their car.

The Jazz Baroness is the story of an unlikely and groundbreaking friendship.  Their relationship was very unique and at times dangerous to both since they were friends at a time when black men and white women were not seen together in the way they are today.

Director Hannah Rothschild answered a couple of questions about the film.

Women & Hollywood: Why do you think that this unique relationship between Nica and Thelonious Monk has gone virtually unreported until now?

Hannah Rothschild: At the time they were hanging out, in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s everyone on the scene knew because they saw them out together. But its been 21 years since she died and twenty-seven since he did. Interest in their relationship and in Nica in particular was reignited when her children and grand-daughter Nadine published Nica’s book ‘Three Wishes’ posthumously. It’s a wonderful journal of her personal photographs and her interviews with musicians where she asked each if they had three wishes what they’d be. After that lots of people’s memories and interest was tweaked.

W&H: What made you need to tell this story?

HR: I was lucky enough to know Nica and as I worked as a documentarian wanted to find out more about this close relation. Her story reflected so many things I am interested in- history, women, music, human rights, America, Europe and my family.  It seemed like a gift.

W&H: Clearly Nica was a woman ahead of her time in many different ways.  What can we learn from her sense of independence and passion?

HR: She was born in 1913 at a time when women didn’t have the vote and in most cases access to education or employment except as domestic servants. Her youth was a waiting room for motherhood and marriage. In the UK until the divorce act of 1969 women weren’t granted either alimony or custody of their children. The only two groups banned from private enclosures at racecourses, for example, were convicted felons and divorcees. Against this backdrop her decision to cross continents and fight for the rights of a group of people whom she considered were badly treated serves as an inspiration. She was an early feminist and freedom fighter.

W&H: I found it so interesting that Nica seems to have been virtually erased from the Rothschild legacy.  How painful is that for you and why do you believe that occurred?

HR: I hope that from now on she will be fully instated. In our family, until now, women have with notable exceptions been erased from the records. Only the children of the eldest sons are included in the family tree: my daughters for example don’t merit an entry because their mother is not the heir. I don’t find it “painful,” it’s just weird.

W&H: What was the most important thing you learned about yourself and Nica from making the film?

HR: To put principals before personalities, to stand up for what you believe in but also accept that others are entitled to their opinions.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female filmmakers?

HR: Fight the good fight! I think that being a woman, having children, juggling the personal and professional has made me a more interesting person with a far wider and subtle take on the world. A young single male might have more energy but he’s bound to have less wisdom!

Film premieres Wednesday, November 25th on HBO2.

Today marks the first anniversary of the Obama election.  Has the country changed?  Hell, yes.  Have things sucked in so many ways over the last year – duh.  Are we having some really important debates.  Yeah.  I for one am psyched to get rid of my underinsurance that I pay a fortune for each month and get me some real health insurance.

But lots of things have still not changed and the behind the scenes documentary of the Obama campaign By the People directed by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams airing tonight on HBO reminded me how far we still have to go regarding women’s leadership.  Yes, Obama has appointed a lot of great women to his cabinet and to leadership positions which is awesome, but when I watched the movie the thing I noticed most was the absence of women in his campaign.  Over the last couple of weeks Obama got a bit of an ass whooping for the male sports focused attitude that seems prevalent in the White House, but once you see the documentary you will understand that it is just an extension of the campaign.  There are a couple of very cute scenes with Michelle and Sasha and Malia at home in Chicago, but aside from those scenes the only female voices I heard were the directors asking questions.  I saw Valerie Jarrett a couple of times, I saw Anita Dunn in the background once or twice but neither of them featured prominently in the film and neither of them said a word.  We have all been told that they were crucial advisers, so how come they weren’t more visible and heard?

The film was fine substantively especially because they were able to uniquely capture Obama speaking in the rain on the day his grandmother died and his emotions were all out there for everyone to see.  The film also showed the dedicated commitment of the worker bees on the ground (most all boys again) who worked their asses off to get Obama elected.

But for me the film illustrates how even the most progressive guys (and I am not just singling out Obama, this is about all the men in leadership of his campaign) who care about women’s issues, who live with and love strong feminist women JUST DON’T GET IT.   Women need to be everywhere.  Seen and heard.  It matters.

We need more women in leadership.  Bottom line.  Commerating this anniversary here are some reflections from the Double X writers on what this year would have been like had Hillary won.

Aviva Kempner knew she could get people to see this film.  Se believed in it deeply and she was right.

This comes directly from Indiewire’s weekend box office assessment:

…an under-the-radar doc hit $1 million after chugging along for nearly four months.  Aviva Kempner’s “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” – released by International Film Circuit – grossed $34,694 from 24 screens in its 17th weekend out, taking its total to $1,030,779. “Goldberg” looks at television pioneer Gertrude Berg. She was the creator, principal writer, and star of “The Goldbergs,” a popular radio show for 17 years, which became television’s very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949.

“After four months of traveling around with the film all over America I am thrilled that Berg is no longer ‘the most famous woman in America that you’ve never heard of’ thanks to InFC’s fine handling of the film”, Aviva Kempner said in a statement. “It also proves that docs that appeal to older audiences like The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg can be commercial successes.  Never underestimate the interests of senior citizens, even though they pay less for a movie!!!”

The release used a mere 25 prints which moved across the country over the entire summer.  The film received a vigorous grassroots outreach campaign and co-promotions with Jewish Film Festivals across the country to reach the target audience without breaking the bank.

“We took advantage of new technology networking without abandoning the tried and true methods that specialty film distributors have always used,” said International Film Circuit’s President Wendy Lidell in a statement.

Update: Kempner is also just the second woman to have two documentaries earn over $1 million.  (The other one is Jehane Noujaim with Startup.com and Control Room.)

(disclaimer: I did a small amount of outreach work on this film this past summer.)

Margot Benacerraf - Photo courtesy of Andres Landino

The Venezuelan director Margot Benacerraf may have only made two films, the 1950s documentaries Reveron and Araya, but her efforts in supporting great Latin American cinema over the past 45 years as the head of various film institutes and organizations have earned her the respect and honors as a pioneer female director in an era where there were few other female directors, save for Ida Lupino and Agnes Varda.

Largely forgotten due to lack of distribution, Araya was stunningly restored for its 50^th anniversary, and re-released by Milestone films.  It is running this month at the IFC Center in NYC.   Joining the ranks of other lost documentary classics like I Am Cuba and Killer of Sheep, Araya is a hidden gem that was not only an early documentary, but subverted its format to be more of a narrative film and successfully blend reality and drama together.  There is no doubt that it was a brilliantly innovative piece of work in 1959, since it shared the top prize with Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Araya, rather than being dry, follows the style of poetic realism, using a classic film score, staged scenes, established characters, and a direction to display the rare and beautiful world of Araya, a land on the cusp of industrialization, where families are connected through the many generations who have worked for over 450 years. Benacerraf displays a masterful eye for balancing truth with cinematic narrative.  She gained the trust of the island’s families and was able to tell the story of a land hard and tough, yet with blinding white beauty in its salt pyramids.  It showed the strength and grace the people’s work routines, and the love and respect shared amongst the families.

I got a chance to interview Benacerraf via email this week about her filming of Araya, her early years in Paris as a filmmaker, and the scene of female filmmakers in the 1950s.

Melissa Silvestri: Araya seems to be from another time and place altogether, pastoral communities separated from the mass market industry of the mainstream world, an environment that seems to be growing rarer due to increased industrialization and people moving into cities. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on that, if you believe such communities can still thrive without disappearing altogether due to pressures from the mainstream world.

Margot Benacerraf: There shouldn’t be many isolated communities left, and even if there are still any left, they would find it very difficult to resist the exterior pressures of the mainstream world. In any case, it is about, and it will always be about, asking to take into account the human problem before those very violent changes, with all that they bear. In the case of Araya, at the end of the film, I couldn’t give it a conclusion before the arrival of the machines because precisely as I was filming on a horse a world that was disappearing, another was beginning. I only had left raising a question with evident anguish because what I had observed nobody else considered to be a human problem. Unfortunately time would vindicate me. Not everything has been beneficial for the people of Araya.

Continue reading ‘Guest Post: Interview with Araya Director Margot Benacerraf by Melissa Silvestri’

I really wanted to see The September Issue, not because I read Vogue which I haven’t in years, but because I find Anna Wintour fascinating.  As a New Yorker I see her face eveywhere yet until this year I don’t think I actually heard her voice.  I was also impresed by the fact that in an industry where people seem to last 10 minutes in a job, she has remained at the helm of her magazine for 20 years.

RJ Cutler who was a producer on The War Room breaks out here as a director bringing us behind the scenes into the making of the most famous magazine.  It’s kind of funny that the focus was on the September 2007 issue which ironically was the biggest issue ever because the recession has humbled the magazine business in a big way.  So the movie is a kind of a coda to a different time, one we will never return to.

Anna Wintour is the most powerful woman in fashion and she and everyone else knows it.  It must be really bizarre living in her skin which by the way seemed completely natural.  In the business where everyone seemed botoxed, her skin and face looked real with lines and everything.  She wields her power decisively and leaves lots of bodies and hurt feelings in her wake.  She doesn’t come off as warm or caring except when she is around her daughter (who by the way has no interest in becoming involved with fashion.)

But the most interesting part of the film was the portrait of Grace Coddington who arrived at American Vogue the same day as Wintour.  She is the opposite of Anna Wintour.  Wintour looks like everything is in place and Coddington looks like nothing is in place.  The two of them clearly respect each other but I can’t see them as friends.  For all of Wintour’s briskness, Coddington is all warmth and fire.  She is a true artist.  Seeing how she designs photo shoots and the passion she puts into her work was amazing.  Each picture is like a little play with all the sets, costumes and actors.

While the film is a strong portrait of a woman in power I’m not letting her off the hook for all the shit she does to make it hard for those of us who don’t give a crap about fur or the latest styles or the ones who are not a size 0 or 2.

The September Issue

It is absolutely unacceptable that we have a slave trade in the 21st century.  It is beyond belief – Emma Thompson

I saw this Fatal Promises on Saturday and I have not stopped thinking about the topic.  It’s not because Emma Thompson was there and was so passionate about the issue, it’s because I felt — and still feel — really ignorant on the topic.

To me it’s unfathomable to believe and understand how people can feel that’s it’s ok to sell other people.  They sell people and make money at it.  All day, every day.  This is a huge business.  Bigger than arms and drugs, yet we all want to get rid of drugs and keep trying unsuccessfully to deal with the arms topic, but the selling of people — mostly women and girls — just passes us by as we go about our every day lives.

The film tells the story of several people — both men and women — who have escaped from slavery.  Yes, they are slaves.  It’s not what we think of as slavery, but they are held against their will, lots of time transported to foreign country, lots of time sexually abused, not fed and made to do work that they are not paid for.  That’s slavery.

Emma Thompson became moved by the issue because she met a woman, Elena, who worked in a massage parlor on Emma’s street in London.  It was a place she and her family passed every day and joked about and behind the glass window was a young woman who was a slave.

Lots of people who are trafficked are women and girls who are forced into sex work.  Girls are kidnapped or sold and young women are lured lots of times by other women into situations they can’t escape from. Fundamentally as Emma Thompson said: “I suppose that it has to do with the fact that in the world there is not enough safety for women.  Women are not safe in many places and that’s a huge and complex issue but in essence the undervaluing of the female is at the root of all of this.”

As an individual, the whole issue seems so overwhelming because there is so much that is unknown.  It’s an underground issue that is about power, sex and money   But you can do something.  First, think about the people around you. Lots of times people who have been trafficked are hidden in plain sight.  If something looks fishy call the cops.  Problem is that lots of times the women who have been trafficked are treated like criminals because there are no good laws to deal with persons who are in another country against their will without proper papers.

Another thing to do is to learn about the issue.  That’s on my list.  If you are in NY go and see this film.  It opens tomorrow at the Cinema Village.

In November, Emma Thompson who is the chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation an organization that works with survivors of human rights abuses, will bring to NY Journey an installation that “bring the reality of the sex trafficking industry to the forefront of social consciousness and empower people to take action. Shackles bind perpetrators to victims, and victims to the punters who exploit them.”

Here are some tidbits (courtesy of Charlotte Cooper and her Flip Cam) from Emma and director Kat Rohrer talking about the issue after the screening on Saturday.

You can check out the trailer for the film on the Fatal Promises site

You can’t but help feel good watching this documentary by Sarah Knight about the blues band Saffire.  These are older women who want to make music and have been on the road for years bringing their brand of blues to people all over the country.

Director Sarah Knight answered some questions about the film.  You can purchase it here. The film is also availalbe on Amazon and on the band’s website.
Women & Hollywood: What drew you to make this film?

Sarah Knight: My fascination with Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women began in the early ’90s after the release of their second album, “Hot Flash.” They caught my eye because, at that time, they were receiving a great deal of national press including features in “The New York Times” & “People Magazine,” and on “Entertainment Tonight” & CNN’s “Showbiz Today.”

It was their story that first intrigued me -- that of three middle-aged women quitting their jobs and hitting the road to pursue their dreams. Their witty lyrics (in songs like, “I Gotta a Silver Beaver” and “Middle Aged Blues Boogie”) provided a further hook, but it was their stellar musicianship that converted me into a permanent fan. In addition, I was lucky enough to catch one of their electrifying live shows when they performed at the 1997 Seattle Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, where one of my short films was being screened.

Some time later I contacted their manager, Bonnie Tallman, only to find their life rights had been under option by another film company for many years. Fortunately for me, nothing was ever realized and the band decided to grant the rights to me when the former option expired in 2006.

The project was originally envisioned as a narrative feature film with actresses playing the three women (a project I am continuing to pursue).  But as I went about my research, it occurred to me that, apart from brief TV segments, no one had ever conducted interviews of any real depth with the band. Furthermore, other than some VHS tapings, professional footage of their wonderful concerts did not exist. I wanted to correct that and bring these sassy dynamos to an audience beyond their loyal fan base.

W&H: There is a great message in the film which is it’s never too late to follow your passion. Why are these women such great examples of that?

SK: The notion of changing careers and pursuing new passions in midlife may seem a bit less audacious now than did in the mid-80s when Saffire tried it.  Nonetheless, it is still inspiring to watch them realize their ambitions. I think Andra Faye sums it up best in the film when she says, “I always dreamed of being a musician for, you know, to make music my life and living but it just didn’t seem real. That must just be some dream that other people can do.” This is especially true for the arts, which is so often discounted as a viable professional pursuit.

W&H: Explain the title of the film-Hot Flash?

SK: “Hot Flash” is the title of one of Saffire’s most successful early albums.  It also reflects their style of putting an empowering, humorous spin on taboo subjects.

W&H: You had to wait several years to get the rights to tell these women’s story. What lessons can you share with other women filmmakers of your experience during that time?

SK: By the time I approached the band, the other company’s option was set to expire within a few months. Even so, it took roughly another year for my contract with Saffire to be fully executed. During that time I was able to attend several concerts and spend time with the band members. The good news was this eventually led to a higher comfort level in the on-camera interviews. So, I would say to always keep track of a project you love, even if it is not available at the time. Options often change hands several times over many years before a project comes to fruition. And, of course, given the glacial pace of indie filmmaking, always have as many projects percolating as possible.

W&H: What do you want people to think about as they learn these women’s stories?

SK: In an age where it is rare to see women past their forties portrayed as sexual beings in the media, I hope the audience can appreciate seeing these women openly embracing their sexuality and other passions well into their sixties. This is real in life, but not often reflected on tv, in film and commercials, etc. But overall, Saffire transcends the issue of gender. As they often say, “We’re more than just feminists, we’re humanists. We are strong women but we like to think of ourselves as strong humans.”

Check out the trailer for the doc:

Here are some details about the film from the folks at Women Make Movies which is distributing the film:

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go captures the students and staff at England’s Mulberry Bush School, a home for children suffering with severe emotional trauma.  Harrowing at one moment and heartwarming the next, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go is described by Variety as “mixing ferocity with tenderness, delicacy with tenacity.”

Film premieres on POV on PBS tonight.  Check your local listings.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go

When I first heard about Gertrude Berg a couple of years ago when I was working on a documentary after my initial shock dissipated, I got angry.  How could it be that such a towering figure in radio and TV history could just…disappear?

Well, the good news is that Berg is back, hopefully for good.  Aviva Kempner has put together the documentary Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg (disclaimer: I am consulting on outreach for the film) that restores Gertrude Berg to her rightful prominence as one of the leading figures of early TV.

Berg was the creator of the radio series The Goldbergs which morphed into the first family sitcom on TV The Goldbergs. The show introduced the country to a Jewish family in the years right after the Holocaust.  This very Jewish family was welcomed into homes all across America and probably introduced jewish customs and traditions to many people who had never heard of them before.

The thing about Gertrude Berg is that she did everything on the show.  She wrote the scripts, she produced the show, and she starred in the show.  EVERYTHING.  She worked her ass off and received the first Emmy for best actress ever.

What was also so great about Gertrude is that she stood up for her co-star Philip Loeb who was named as a communist.  Sadly, standing up for her convictions and her friend doomed the show.  She lost her sponsors and couldn’t get any more until she fired Loeb which she refused to do for over a year.  During the McCarthy insanity there were not many people who stood up for others and Berg was one of those few.  The show never really recovered and when they moved the family from the Bronx to the suburbs it was doomed.

This film is a great history lesson about a woman who was a feminist before the word was used.  At the height of her popularity she was the second most admired woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt.  I’m so glad that her life has been preserved for generations to see.

Aviva Kempner has been working for many years to bring Gertrude’s story to the screen.  She answered some questions about the film.

Women & Hollywood: Why did you want to tell Gertrude Berg’s story?

Aviva Kempner: For the past 30 years I have done films about Jewish heroes–men and women who fought the Nazis and baseball slugger Hank Greenberg.  This time  I wanted to concentrate on a heroine who had such a positive influence on American culture.

W&H: Gertude accomplished so many things in her life and was truly famous in her time yet she is completely unknown especially to younger audiences. How did she get to be: the most famous woman in America you’ve never heard of?

AK: Her shows were not syndicated, she suffered from her co-star Philip Loeb’s blacklist, and she was on TV so long ago that she is not duly remembered.

W&H: Gertrude was in charge of all facets of her show from writing to producing to casting…everything. What lessons can we take from Gertude and use today?

AK: Use every minute of the day.  She would write from 6 to 9 in the morning, and her husband Lewis would type her scripts, and then she would go to the studio and produce and then without much effort slide into her role as Molly Goldberg.

W&H: Why have you made it your life’s work to make documentaries about under known Jews?

AK: As a child of a Holocaust survivor who lost three grandparents and an aunt to the Holocaust, I consider it my life’s mission to make films about Jewish heroes and heroines that contradict negative stereotypes about Jews.

W&H: Gertrude was so big and important in the industry that she was able to fend off the “blacklist” for some time and protect her lead actor Philip Loeb. Yet she could not hold them off and she was forced to remove Loeb and the show suffered and her career suffered. Can you talk about what it meant for a woman to do what she did at that time?

AK: I think for any man or woman at that time it was heroic to stand up to the blacklist, and it makes me proud one of the most courageous stories emulated from a Jewish woman.

W&H: What is your most favorite thing you discovered about Gertrude Berg?

AK: She wrote in the bathtub and every morning at 6 am.  Now I wake up that early to work.

W&H: You really want younger women to learn about Gertrude. Why is that so important to you?

AK: Our tagline is the most famous woman in America you never heard of and that alone makes it an important film for younger women to see the film.  Also we want Americans to know the first inspiration for the domestic sitcom was Berg, and that you can funny and poignant without having to be gross.  Wonder what movie I could be talking about?

W&H: What story are you thinking of working on next?

AK: I co-wrote a dramatic script about a Navajo activist which I want to produce as well as documentaries on labor leader Samuel Gompers and the establishment of the  Rosenwald schools.

Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg opens in NYC this weekend, Washington Dc on July 17th and will roll out across the country over the summer and fall.  Check here for info on where the film is playing.

Kempner will be in NY this weekend conducting Q&As:

She will be at Lincoln Plaza cinema at the Fri & Sat 7:10 & 9:25 and will be at the Quad Cinema at the Sat & Sun 2:50 & 4:40 shows.

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Here’s a review of a documentary that played at the recent SILVERDOCS Fest done by Anna Pinkert of Still Indie.  Film will air on PBS this fall.  (If you have a review of post you think would be appropriate for this site, please send it to me at melissa@womenandhollywood.com.  I am looking for additional voices and perspectives on the site.)

Gemma Cubero del Barrio and Celeste Carrasco follow two women in their quest to succeed in the machismo world of Spanish bullfighting.  The film itself is beautiful – watching it, I had an incredible sense of the two women not only as devoted athletes and trailblazers, but also as people who are passionate about an art that is significant in Spanish culture.

Maripaz Vega, Celeste Carrasco, Eva Florencia and Gemma Cubero del Barrio. Photo by Anna Pinkert

Both filmmakers and both of the women bullfighters were on hand at the screening I attended.  The filmmakers said that this movie took 9 years to make.  Initially, they conceived of it as a piece on the history of women bullfighters, but when they met Eva Florencia and Maripaz Vega, they decided to make them the center of the story.  On their part, Eva Florencia and Maripaz Vega said that they loved watching the film, and were proud to be a part of it.  Vega, who is an established matador, hoped that the film would improve the situation for women bullfighters in Spain, but that they have a long way to go.

One of the many things I learned at SILVERDOCS is the value of a good relationship with your subjects.  At a screening of Salesman, legendary director Albert Maysles updated us on the status of his four Bible salesmen subjects, 40 years after the film’s debut.  Being warm, generous, and kind to the people in your film has a better chance of yielding the intimate stories that you want to tell as a filmmaker.

Ella Es El Matador will premiere on PBS on Sept 1 as a part of POV.

Anna Pinkert is a multimedia producer working in the Boston metro area and a blogger at Still Indie.

Megan and Pinki go to the Oscar

It’s hard to watch Megan Mylan’s Oscar winning short film Smile Pinki without having emotions.  At the beginning it was sadness, but by the end you can’t stop smiling as much a Pinki the young Indian girl whose life is totally changed through the surgery to correct her cleft lip.  Pinki is an amazing girl with adorable pony tails and a loving dad.  She can’t go to school and is ostracized because of the way she looks.  Luckily, she meets Pankaj a social worker from G.S. Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital whose job is to travel to different villages and find children who need the surgery.  This meeting changes her life forever.

The people who do this are amazing and I don’t think I will ever see those Smile Train commercials in the same way anymore.   The hospital performs about 3,000 of these surgeries a year with a 100% success rate.  The problem is that there are so many kids who need the surgery with 35,000 children born annually with clefts in India.  Smile Train operates in 76 developing countries and this year will have helped its 500,000 child.  Wow.

Megan Mylan is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow.  Her film Lost Boys of Sudan, co-directed with Jon Shenk, won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for two national Emmys.

Please check out Smile Pinki starting this Wednesday, June 3 at 7pm on HBO.  Other HBO playdates:  June 7 (3:15 p.m.), 9 (9:45 a.m.), 13 (11:15 a.m.) and 22 (3:15 p.m.) HBO2 playdates:  June 5 (1:15 p.m.), 7 (6:00 a.m.), 16 (5:30 p.m.), 20 (4:45 p.m.) and 24 (9:15 p.m.)

Megan Mylan answered some questions about her film:

Women & Hollywood: What about this topic moved you to want to make a film about it?

Megan Mylan: I enjoy telling stories of compelling people going through life transforming moments, and Pinki’s story definitely had that.   I’m also attracted to stories of people making a positive impact in the world, and Dr. Subodh and the incredible work of the Smile Train sure fit that.  I loved the idea of being with a young child and their family when they find out that something that has so devastatingly defined their young life can be easily and completely cured.  Journey stories are also always fun to tell, especially one set in a region as culturally and visually rich as Uttar Pradesh, India.

W&H: How did you pick the two children you would highlight?

MM: It was very important to me that we capture the first moment when the social workers meet the children and their families.  Unfortunately I didn’t have the budget to have the meter running while we traveled the countryside hoping to meet up with a character strong enough to carry the film.  The solution I found was working with a great Indian field producer named, Nandini Rajwade who went out ahead of time with Ravi Anand, one of the social workers from Banaras under the guise of being generic health workers to scout potential characters, they talked with several children with clefts, but didn’t reveal anything about the surgery program.  Nandini sent me photographs and character sketches of about a dozen children.  Pinki and Ghutaru both jumped off the page, there was a great sparkle in their eyes.  Pinki’s special closeness with her father and the strength of Ghutaru’s mother were evident right away. Then when I arrived with the crew we went out in the field with Pankaj in the area where the children lived, but let him find them as he naturally would, handing out flyers, visiting schools and asking folks along the way.  Casting is so important for character driven films, but  it’s always a lot of gut and a lot of luck getting it right.  As soon as I met Pinki and Ghutaru, I was relieved and excited that we had made the right choices.

W&H: What did you learn most from these children and their families?

MM: There is really a different life rhythm in Banaras and the surrounding rural areas where our characters come from.   The hospital while it was doing a dozen surgeries each day and receiving new patients 24 hours a day,  was such a serene and nurturing place where doctors and social workers alike took the time to sit and listen. I am trying to incorporate a bit more of that calmness into my life.

W&H: Why are you interested in making films about social justice issues?

MM: They are  issues and people who grab my heart and my head.

W&H: What role does the documentarian have now in light of the fact that news organizations have cut back so much in covering issues and topics of people like the ones covered in your film.

MM: It makes me sick all of the cut-backs in international and community reporting, we’ll be a much poorer world for it and I’m not sure documentaries can fill the news void. Unlike news reporting,  I make films that leave people a lot of space to come to their own conclusions. What I love about verite or observational-style filmmaking is its ability to pull an audience into a reality that may be very different from their own.   I’m inspired by the simple idea that the better we know each other, the better this world is. Hopefully people come away from the film emotionally satisfied, having learned something, curious to find out more and thinking about their own life in a slightly different way.  But it’s not news.

W&H: Women direct far fewer fictional films than docs.  Why do you think
women are so more successful in documentaries?

MM: Maybe egos are smaller in the documentary world, it attracts a lot of great women and men who tend to say “we” more than “me.”  One of the best things about working in documentary is all of the fabulous people I get to call colleagues.  I love that most of the “big cheeses” in the industry are women.

W&H: What advice would you give to women who want to get into documentaries?

MM: The same advice I give to anyone interested in documentary.  Find someone whose films you love and who you respect as a human being and do whatever it takes to work with them.

W&H: What’s next for you?

MM: I’m directing a film on race relations in Brazil.

HBO will premiere the documentary Kick Like a Girl directed by Jenny Mackenzie today at 6pm EST.  It is part of an evening of docs about girls that will air tonight.  It starts at 5:30 with Beginning Filmmaking and ends with Hard Times for an American Girl.  I am setting the TIVO right now.  (H/T to Cynthia Fuchs at Pop Matters.)

Here’s the description of Kick Like a Girl:

After two undefeated seasons against girls’ soccer teams their age and older, Utah’s Mighty Cheetahs are about to take on a new challenge: boys. Cheetahs coach Jenny Mackenzie chronicles the adventures of these third-grade underdogs as they set out to prove their game skills and overcome the skepticism of opponents and parents in the inspiring family documentary KICK LIKE A GIRL.

Here is Cynthia Fuchs’ full write up on all three docs from Pop Matters.

Here is HBO’s doc home page to find out when else these films are playing.

Update: Here’s Broadsheet’s take on the film.

There are many awesome female documentarians but Kim Longinotto is at the top of the field.  A retrospective of her 30 year body of work will featured at the Museum of Modern Art this month in NYC.  Longinotto is known for documenting untold stories of women from around the globe.

The series opens with the New York premiere of Rough Aunties (2009), about a group of women who protect and care for the neglected children of Durban, South Africa. The film was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize in Documentary at this year‘s Sundance Film Festival and will have its national broadcast premiere on HBO in 2010.

Other films being screened include:

Pride of Place, 1978, a revealing look at the strict treatment of young women in a girls’ boarding school, which she had formerly attended.

Theatre Girls, 1979, a film shot in the calamitous atmosphere of a 24-hour admitting hostel for homeless women.

Sisters in Law (2005, co-directed with Florence Ayisi), about two bold and progressive-minded women in Kumba, Cameroon, who help victims of abuse speak up and out against their oppressors,

Divorce Iranian Style (1998, co-directed with Ziba Mir-Hosseini), which over the course of several weeks follows the complex social and legal customs surrounding Iranian divorce from the inside perspective of a Tehran divorce court

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (2007), a look inside Oxfordshire‘s Mulberry Bush School where emotionally traumatized children are treated with restraint and sensitivity (winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2008 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, with its national broadcast premiere taking place on July 28 on PBS’s P.O.V.).

Dream Girls (1993), about a popular ―women only‖ musical theater company in Japan where young women are sent to study both male and female 2
roles (winner of Best Documentary at Films de Femmes, Creteil)

Shinjuku Boys (1995), which follows three Japanese onnabes‘—gender-bending women who live as men and have girlfriends (named Outstanding Documentary at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and winner of the Gold Prize at the Houston Film Festival).

Director Longinotto will participate in post-screening discussions with the audience for the screenings of Rough Aunties (May 7), Divorce Iranian Style (May 8), Hold Me Tight (May 9), and Sisters in Law (May 10).

More info on screening times here

Trouble the Water, the Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath premieres tonight on HBO at 8:30pm.  It is a must see.

Here’s an excerpt from my write-up from last summer when the film was released.

“One of the things that is so remarkable about the film is that this was not the film that Deal and Lessin set out to make. They were in the area two weeks after Katrina working on a story about the Louisiana National Guard troops, and into their camera frame walked this amazing force of energy Kimberly Rivers Roberts who told them she had a story to tell. And boy did she. She and her husband Scott lived in the 9th ward just barely getting by surviving by any means necessary. As the storm approached she took out her new video camera that she had used only once before, and this amateur filmmaker with only a single tape and battery was able to record images of Katrina right from the storm’s center.”

Trouble The Water

I still have major issues with Madsen for shilling Botox, but her Title IX Productions which she formed last year is taking on a good fight – the right for women ski jumpers to compete in the Olympic games.

Film follows 15 athletes and their fight against the International Olympic committee.  Ski jumping is the only remaining Olympic sport that is strictly men only.  The women compete in international events, it’s just the Olympics that has issues.  Get over it.

Here’s what Madsen had to say:

“To think that in 2009, in a celebrated, international event like the Olympics, women are still dealing with discrimination is pretty shocking,” Madsen said. “We knew instantly we wanted to throw our support behind this project and get the word out there.”

The film is also produced by Empire 8 and Trish Dolman from Screen Siren.

Virginia Madsen to defy ‘Gravity’ (Variety)

Distribution vets Emily Woodburne ( IFC and Zeitgeist), Bridget Stokes (IFC Films) and Vicky Wight (Artistic License) have joined forces and have created a new distribution company BEV Pictures.  The films to be released by the company will focus on a slate of films that will use grass-roots networking and online marketing.

BEV Pictures joins Zeitgeist Films as only the second female owned distribution company.

First film up is Pressure Cooker which won awards at the LA Film Festival, Aspen Film Festival and the Portland International Film Festival.  The film focuses on culinary arts teacher Wilma Stephenson and her high school students at Northeast Philadelphia’s Frankford High School.

Doc is directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker and was produced by Participant Media.  Pressure Cooker will open in NY on May 27th and in LA on June 5th.

Pressure Cooker

Woodburne, Stokes & Wight Launch BEV Pictures, Pick “Pressure Cooker” (IndieWIRE)

Ellen Kuras

Well of course there are, but the numbers are still pathetically low.  According to the statistics from the Center for the Study of Women in TV and Film at San Diego State, women cinematographers made up a scant 2% of those who worked on the top 250 grossing films in 2007.  (2008 stats should be released shortly)

So, I was excited to see the documentary featuring women from all over the world in Women Behind the Camera by Alexis Krasilovsky shown this past weekend at the Fusion Film Festival in NYC.  The women who work behind the camera in so many jobs from electrician to gaffer to cinematographer are truly on the front lines in breaking down barriers for women.  We should be thanking all of them.  Most of them work alone, get harassed (still!) and are doing jobs still seen as “male.”  The stories were all great but I especially loved the story of Yu Li Hua Shu Shi Jun who traveled with Moa Ze Dong across China by train.  He never gave any indication of when they were going to stop so she got accustomed of sleeping with her camera so she could be ready in a moments notice.

Here’s what I learned:

• Like directing, this is a man’s world.  One woman even said “guys are just happier working with guys.”
• France has had women working behind the camera for year no problem.
• It’s virtually impossible for a woman to demonstrate the discrimination.
• In Bollywood women are only hairdressers and heroines.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger literally groped Kristin Glover working the camera on his 1975 film Pumping Iron
• “Hollywood is not embarrassed about the statistics with women”- Liz Bailey.
• Ellen Kuras just nominated for her directing and is one of the most respected cinematographers talked eloqurntly about being the leader of the crew and her job is the safety and care of her crew.

Leelaben Paben

There was a panel after the documentary that was moderated by Sandi Sissel who shot Salaam Bombay is now a professor at NYU and is deliberately mentoring and training young women.  She has been in the business since the early 70s when she had to wear a dress and had to sue to get into the union.

Sissel had most of the interesting stories to share and dominated the conversation. More tidbits:

• Maryse Alberti who just shot The Wrestler couldn’t get work in the past so she had to shoot pornos.
• In 1974 there was a class action lawsuit against all the networks forcing them to hire more women and people of color.
• While the number of women is still so low according to Professor Sissel, percentage wise women work more and win more awards.
• An inexperienced director will work with an experienced director of photography (DP) but an experienced director will not work with an inexperience DP.
• The percentages are still so low because there are not ready for a woman to be in charge of a budget.
• Sissel didn’t hire women because she didn’t think she was the best as was shocked to find herself in the position she was.
• It’s a young person’s business and working behind the camera is a really hard job.  you have to be passionate about it.

God forbid you should file a sexual harassment lawsuit.  YOU WILL NEVER WORK AGAIN!

The other panelists included Rachel Levine, Kate Phelan, Kat Westergaard, Una Lee, Valentina Caniglia, Jendra Jarnagin and Meg Ketell agreed that things are clearly better for women now, they can get into the union they can get jobs.  But there are still very few women behind the scenes on films and at times they are the only women on the set (STILL!) and more importantly there is no sense of sisterhood among the women.  Guys understand that if they help their colleagues be successful they look better, we still seem to be competing against each other for the crumbs.  If we women figured out how to band together in many industries…watch out.

Update: Got an comment from the filmmaker with a couple of corrections:

Producer Sarah Pillsbury is the woman who said, “Hollywood is not embarrassed about the statistics with women.” (Much to her credit, Sarah hired Tami Reiker to DP one of the features she produced, and said that Tami did a terrific job. Liz Bailey is a former Vice-President of what was then called “the Society of Operating Cameramen.”)

Didn’t make it to a screening but this film looks interesting and engaging.  Opens today at the IFC in NYC.  Taylor seems like a really cool director she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces to Watch” in 2006, and runs Hidden Driver Productions with Laura Hanna, which specializes in intellectual, cultural and political issues.  Gotta meet these women.

Synopsis (from the website):

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West—perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual—compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.

Featuring Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwarne Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor.

Examined Life