BY Kate Gardner
January 2017 Film Preview
“Underworld: Blood Wars” January is good month for fans of female-led action films. Both the “Underworld” and “Resident Evil” franchises are releasing their latest chapters. Even those...
Breaking the Mold: December 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“Lipstick the Series” This month’s crowdfunding picks are all about breaking the mold. From a documentary set during the modern women’s movement to the second season of a popular web series...
Inner Lives: November 2016’s VOD and Web Series Picks
“Bwitches” It’s no secret that women lead rich, inner lives. From keeping their true selves secret from the public eye, to private struggles with illness, this month’s choices on VOD and the...
Struggles and Successes: November 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“Guard” We all deal with struggles in our daily lives, and this month’s choices for crowdfunding picks showcase the day-to-day struggles women face. From a very real fight against privilege, to...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Lara Stolman — “Swim Team”
Lara Stolman has produced news and documentaries that have aired on NBC, MSNBC, TLC, AMC, VH-1, and The New York Times’ website. Her film “Portraits of Survival,” which explored coming to...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Robin Lung — “Finding Kukan”
Producer-director Robin Lung is a fourth generation Chinese American who was raised in Hawai’i. She has a 16-year history of bringing untold minority and women’s stories to film. A graduate of...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maro Chermayeff — “Soundbreaking”
Maro Chermayeff is the Series Director & Executive Producer of “Soundbreaking,” the Co-founder and Executive Producer at production company Show of Force, and the Chair of the MFA Social...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Carrie Lozano and Charlotte Lagarde — “The Ballad of Fred Hersch…
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Carrie Lozano and Charlotte Lagarde — “The Ballad of Fred Hersch” “The Ballad of Fred Hersch” Carrie Lozano is an award-winning documentary...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Carrie Lozano and Charlotte Lagarde — “The Ballad of Fred…
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Carrie Lozano and Charlotte Lagarde — “The Ballad of Fred Hersch” Carrie Lozano is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. She is...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sally Jean Williams — “Ken Dewey — This Is A Test”
Sally Jean Williams has produced and directed for the National Geographic Channel, Lifetime and Animal Planet/Discovery Networks. She worked with award winning global production house NHNZ filming...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Kimi Takesue — “95 And 6 To Go”
Kimi Takesue is an award-winning filmmaker and the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Film. Takesue’s critically acclaimed Ugandan feature-length documentary “Where Are You...
DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Suki Hawley — “All the Rage”
Filmmaker Suki Hawley recently directed and edited the documentary feature “Who Took Johnny,” which chronicles a mother’s tenacious fight to find out what happened to her son, Johnny Gosch,...
November 2016 Film Preview
“Moana” As the holidays begin to kick into high gear, so does award season. This month is packed with performances by actresses who are considered likely to receive Oscar nods.. If you’re not...
Daisy Ridley is Done With “Mary Sue” Criticisms, and Quite Frankly So Are We
“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”: Disney After months of angry fanboys complaining that Rey’s excellent piloting abilities and Force powers made her the worst kind of Mary Sue and the...
Know No Boundaries: Crowdfunding Picks
“Mourning Dove” storyboard The creativity and audacity of women directors and writers know no bounds in this round of crowdfunding picks. These stories, ranging from sharp-witted comedies to...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Laura Israel — “Don’t Blink — Robert Frank”
Laura Israel started editing award-winning commercials and music videos while a film student at NYU. By the time she graduated she had formed her own editorial company, Assemblage. “Windfall,”...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nicolette Krebitz — “Wild”
Nicolette Krebitz was born and raised in Berlin. After graduating from the National Ballet School, she studied acting at The Fritz Kirchhoff School in Berlin until 1992. Afterwards, she worked in...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rahmatou Keita — “The Wedding Ring”
Rahmatou Keïta was born in Niger. After studying philosophy and linguistics in Paris, she started her career in France and made a name for herself as a journalist for European TV channels. In 1993,...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anocha Suwichakornpong — “By the Time It Gets Dark”
Born in Thailand, Anocha Suwichakornpong graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in film from Columbia University in New York. Her thesis film, “Graceland,” was screened at the Cannes Film...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Fiona Gordon — “Lost in Paris”
Fiona Gordon studied theater and movement in Paris. She met Dominique Abel at the Lecoq school and after a short period in London working with Theatre de Complicité, she joined Abel in Belgium...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Mijke de Jong — “Layla M.”
Mijke de Jong’s international breakthrough came with “Bluebird,” for which she won a number of awards, including the Crystal Bear at the 2005 Berlinale. Her other credits include “Stages,”...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Mattie Do — “Dearest Sister”
Mattie Do launched her career in the movie industry working as a makeup artist. Do is an alumni of the Cannes’ Fabrique des Cinemas du Monde talent lab, the TIFF Director Talent Lab, and the...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum— “Letters from Baghdad”
Sabine Krayenbühl is an award-winning editor with over 20 theatrical documentaries and narrative features to her credit. Her work includes Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated “My...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Khushboo Ranka — “An Insignificant Man”
Khushboo Ranka has experience in the fields of journalism, graphic design, and filmmaking. “Continuum,” a short film she wrote and directed at the age of 20, won the best short film at the...
Making Your Own Way: September Web Series and VOD Picks
“Ladies Room” Too often, stories about women fall into the same tired tropes: the search for a husband, children, and “having it all.” This month’s picks for web series and VOD highlight...
Strong Women, Both Real and Fictional: September 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“Nasbandi” As the theme song to Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” says, “females are strong as hell.” This month’s crowdfunding picks highlight the strength and courage women...
Fall TV Preview: Series By and About Women to Check Out
“Queen Sugar” By Kate Gardner and Rachel Montpelier Fall is here, and with it comes the most wonderful time of the year for television buffs. Some new and returning series are great, others less...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Katell Quillévéré — “Heal the Living”
Katell Quillévéré was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Her films include the shorts “À bras les corps,” “L’Imprudence,” and “L’Échappée,” and the features “Un poison violent”...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Erin Heidenreich — “Girl Unbound”
Director-writer-producer of documentaries, short films, and branded content, Erin Heidenreich’s voice has been shaped by the cultures she has immersed herself in across the globe. Set in the...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors : Meet Sofia Exarchou — “Park”
Sofia Exarchou was born in Athens. She has been working as an assistant director in feature films and commercials since 2004. She has written and directed two short films, “Distance” and...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet María José Cuevas — “Beauties of the Night”
María José Cuevas’ practice draws from her experience in documentary, experimental video, design, and photography. She has collaborated on a variety of diverse cultural projects, which have...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Adina Smith — “Buster’s Mal Heart”
Sarah Adina Smith’s first feature, “The Midnight Swim,” won six top prizes on the festival circuit, including the breakthrough audience award from AFI FEST. Smith was the only female director...
TIFF 2016: Meet Chloé Robichaud — “Boundaries”
Born in Quebec, screenwriter and director Chloé Robichaud lives and works in Montreal. Her first feature film, “Sarah préfère la course,” was selected for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Her...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Selma Vilhunen — “Little Wing”
Selma Vilhunen is an Academy Award nominated director and screenwriter based in Helsinki, Finland. She has written and directed both documentaries and fiction films since 1998. Vilhunen’s short...
TIFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Émond — “Nelly”
Anne Émond lives and works in Montreal. Between 2005 and 2011, she wrote and directed seven short films, “Naissances” and “Sophie Lavoie” among them, which screened at several international...
September 2016 Film Preview
“Queen of Katwe” by Kate Gardner and Rachel Montpelier From tense horror films to powerful documentaries, the diversity of films this September shows that films by and about women span all...
Helping Hands: August 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“Love is Uganda” We all need a helping hand sometimes, and that is the running theme in the second round of crowdfunding picks for August. From women helping each other to the real life...
“Ghostbusters” and the Specter of Double Standards
“Ghostbusters” It seems as though the positive critical consensus is not enough to bust the ghosts haunting Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters.” The latest haunting is the specter of double...
Women Vs. the World: Crowdfunding Picks
In this month’s crowdfunding picks, it’s all about the challenges women face, be they the daily challenges of finding a job, or the struggle of coming to terms with one’s own past. These...
Identity Politics: July Web Series and VOD Picks
“Oh Lucy!” One of the most popular themes in art is the exploration of the self, identity, and the way society impacts the way we view ourselves. In this month’s picks for web series, women try...