Guest Post by Maya Montañez Smukler

Joan Micklin Silver’s 1977 film “Between the Lines” captures a precious moment when 1960s social idealism struggled against 1970s careerist narcissism amongst the employees of a local independent newspaper in the throes of a corporate takeover. Written by Fred Barron, a journalist who based the script on his experience working for the independent Boston publication the Real Paper, the film centers on the Back Bay Mainline, whose glory days as a radical underground, counter-culture news source — for hard-hitting reportage on the “truth” — has fallen prey to a rich media mogul. Featuring a charismatic cast, including Lindsay Crouse, Jill Eikenberry, Marilu Henner, Gwen Welles, Jeff Goldblum, John Heard, Bruno Kirby, and Joe Morton in some of their earliest roles, these friends, lovers, and co-workers juggle sexual politics and professional aspirations as the age of advertising pushes meaningful copy off the pages of their beloved newspaper.

Today, the opportunity to see “Between the Lines,” recently digitally restored by Cohen Media, on the big screen is a chance to experience an American independent film classic. Not only was Micklin Silver one of the few directors during the 1970s to make independent films a decade before there was a viable marketplace for such work, she was also part of a figurative “generation” of women directing narrative features at a time when the mythology of the male director loomed large.

“I had such blatantly sexist things said to me by studio executives when I started,” Micklin Silver remembered in a 1979 interview, “the most outstanding of which was, ‘feature films are very expensive to mount and to distribute, and women directors are one more problem we don’t need.’”

While distribution was difficult for most independent filmmakers during the 1970s, and sexism a reality for all women directing features, Micklin Silver, in partnership with her husband, Ray Silver — she as the director and he as the producer-distributor — made her two first films, “Hester Street” (1975) and “Between the Lines,” with much success. She eventually moved into studio filmmaking with movies such as “Chilly Scenes of Winter” (aka “Head Over Heels,” 1979) and “Crossing Delancey” (1988) and began directing television movies in the 1990s and early 2000s.

With no prior experience in the film industry, during the early 1970s Silver used his financial skills and business contacts from a successful 25-year career in real estate to start another career with his wife. “I didn’t feel that I was doing her a favor,” he said of stepping up to produce for Micklin Silver. “I think it’s a lot different for a woman in the creative world than it is for a man. Men have got this whole support system — the old boys.”

The couple’s first feature, “Hester Street,” also written by Micklin Silver, was a period piece about Jewish immigrants living in early-20th-century New York City that was shot on location in Greenwich Village for a budget of under $400K. The picture generated a buzz on the international festival market where critics predicted that the film would be a “sleeper” hit, which it was. Encouraged by John Cassavetes, who had self-distributed his film ” A Woman Under the Influence” in 1974, Silver distributed “Hester Street” himself. The movie grossed an estimated $5 million and earned newcomer Carol Kane an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

“Between the Lines” was a daring venture for the Silvers: by the mid-1970s the studios had begun to re-establish their dominance with a blockbuster formula defined by movies like “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” and “Saturday Night Fever.” The couple financed and self-distributed their second feature with the profits from “Hester Street.” A human interest story, with no special effects or a chart-breaking soundtrack, and starring a captivating ensemble cast of unknowns, “Between the Lines” received favorable reviews, but struggled to compete with bigger pictures that dominated theaters. The film’s themes of journalistic integrity butting up against corporate greed will resonate a great deal with modern audiences, but it is Micklin Silver’s expertise at balancing humor and heartbreak in this adult coming-of-age story that keeps the vibrant ’70s portrait timeless.

Thanks to these efforts in film restoration and public programming invested in protecting and celebrating women’s work, a treasured piece of American cinema history will thrive.

Cohen Media’s newly-released 2K restoration of “Between the Lines” will screen in New York beginning February 22 as part of the Quad Cinema’s “Goldblum Variations” series, a tribute to performer Jeff Goldblum, and in Los Angeles on February 23 as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s series “Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema.”

Maya Montañez Smukler manages the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Research & Study Center. Her recent book, “Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors & the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema,” is available from Rutgers University Press.