BY Sophia Stewart
Director Erin Derham Explains How Making “Stuffed” Changed Her Views on Taxidermy
Erin Derham is an award-winning film director who began her career editing and directing for PBS. Her films include “Buskin’ Blues,” a music documentary exploring the secretive lives of street...
July 2019 Film Preview
Summertime can often be a grim time to go to the movies, as male-dominated blockbusters and a deluge of sequels clog the box office. But this July looks especially promising for original films by and...
EIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Emily Harris – “Carmilla”
Emily Harris is a visual storyteller spanning film, theater, exhibition, and installation. Her work has been shown at major film festivals and museums worldwide including the V&A Museum London,...
How Women Showrunners Are Changing TV
This year seven trailblazing series led by women come to an end. Each one — “Jane the Virgin,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Broad...
EIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sasha Collington – “Love Type D”
Sasha Collington is an alumnus of the Binger Writers Lab and the Berlinale Talent Campus. She was one of four writers to win the inaugural Betty Box and Peter Rogers Comedy Writing Award for her...
EIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Greta Bellamacina – “Hurt By Paradise”
Greta Bellamacina is an actress, filmmaker, and poet. She was born in London and made her acting debut in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” at the age of thirteen. She trained at The...
Binge Worthy: Crowdfunding Picks
Sometimes there’s no better way to decompress from a long day or a stressful week than watching an episode of your favorite show. Or four. Or 10. There’s no shame in a good binge-watching...
Our Bodies, Our Choice: VOD and Web Series Picks
Reproductive rights are under attack across the country. And while women throughout Hollywood are making their own efforts to defend access to safe abortion nationwide, there is still work to be done...
Here & Queer: Crowdfunding Picks
Despite their place at the forefront of the women’s rights movement, queer women have long been marginalized, misunderstood, and underrepresented by media. The history and experiences of queer...
Under the Radar: Diane Paragas’ “Yellow Rose” Puts the American Dream to Music
“I feel out of place/Song out of tune,” sings Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada), strumming her guitar on her bed, donning a red cowboy hat. “Like a velvet chair in a dusty sunroom.”...
Cannes 2019 Women Directors: Meet Maryam Touzani – “Adam”
Maryam Touzani is a director, screenwriter, and actress. Her first short film, 2012’s “When They Slept,” was selected by a number of prestigious international festivals and received...
Cannes 2019 Women Directors: Meet Melina León – “Song Without a Name”
Melina León is a Peruvian director based in Lima and New York. Her short film “El paraíso de Lili,” translated as “Lili’s Paradise,” premiered at the New York Film...
You Have to Laugh: VOD and Web Series Picks
“Humor is just another defense against the universe,” Mel Brooks told Rolling Stone in 1978. This insight is perhaps even truer for women — we’ve often had to wield our senses...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Laurence Mathieu-Leger – “Willie”
Laurence Mathieu-Leger is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and producer. She specializes in documentary projects and has done work for The Guardian, Reuters, La Presse, Cosmo, and the United...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Rama Rau – “The Daughter Tree”
Rama Rau is a writer-director. Rau’s debut fiction feature, “Honey Bee,” won the EDA Best Film Award at the Whistler Film Festival. Her film “League of Exotique Dancers”...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Baljit Sangra – “Because We Are Girls”
Baljit Sangra uses documentary and factual entertainment to explore social and cross-cultural issues. A three-time Leo Award nominee, Sangra’s films have premiered at festivals around the world....
Imagine That: Crowdfunding Picks
Imagination, J.K. Rowling shared in her 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech, is “not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not” but also “the power that enables us...
May 2019 Film Preview
May 2019 promises to be an exciting month for new releases by and about women. From star-studded comedies to intimate documentaries, women’s stories are flooding theaters this month. Olivia...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Claudia Sparrow – “Maxima”
Claudia Sparrow was born and raised in Lima, Peru. Her first feature, “I Remember You,” won best dramatic feature film at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles and was released...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Emily Gan – “Cavebirds”
Emily Gan is a Chinese-Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and video artist born and based in Montréal. Gan has travelled across Canada, the US, India, and Malaysia working on various independent...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Aude Leroux-Lévesque – “A Place of Tide and Time”
Aude Leroux-Lévesque is a Montreal-based documentary filmmaker. Her first documentary, “Call me Salma,” aired on Arte, EBS Korea, Direct 8, and played in numerous international film...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Danielle Sturk – “El Toro”
Danielle Sturk is a bilingual multi-disciplinary artist. Sturk’s films have screened at over 30 film festivals, and have been broadcast on most major Canadian English and French networks, such...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nance Ackerman, Ariella Pahlke, and Teresa MacInnes – “Conviction”
Nance Ackerman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist. Her films have won awards for direction and cinematography. Her credits include “Cottonland,” “Four...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Shannon Walsh – “Illusions of Control”
Shannon Walsh has written and directed four award-winning feature documentaries, as well as multiple shorts and 360 VR projects. Her work has been released theatrically in Canada, the UK, and South...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Megan Wennberg – “Drag Kids”
Megan Wennberg is a writer and director based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She works in both documentary and fiction, and her work has screened at festivals around the world and been broadcast on CBC,...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Cindy Meehl – “The Dog Doc”
Cindy Meehl is a director and executive producer of documentary feature films. Her documentary feature “Buck” premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Tal Granit – “Flawless”
Tal Granit’s credits include “The Farewell Party,” which won the audience award at the Venice Film Festival and was distributed worldwide, “Summer Vacation,” which...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Schafer – “Buddha in Africa”
Nicole Schafer is a South African director. She produced award-winning stories for the Reuters pan-African magazine show “Africa Journal.” Her thesis film from the University of Cape...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Pailin Wedel – “Hope Frozen”
Pailin Wedel is a Thai-American journalist and filmmaker who grew up in Asia. She has regularly produced documentary programs for Al Jazeera English, namely for its current events program “101...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ani Simon-Kennedy – “The Short History of the Long Road”
Ani Simon-Kennedy is a feature film, documentary, and commercial director. Her first feature, “Days of Gray,” played at top festivals around the world with an original live score by...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia – “Leftover Women”
Shosh Shlam is a director and producer. She has directed several documentaries, including “Last Journey into Silence,” “Good Garbage,” and “Web Junkie.” Hilla...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jeanie Finlay – “Seahorse”
Jeanie Finlay is British documentary filmmaker. Her films tell small and intimate stories to international audiences, whether inviting them behind the scenes of Teesside’s last record shop...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Maya Newell – “In My Blood It Runs”
Maya Newell is an award-winning Australian filmmaker with a focus on social impact documentary. Her credits include short docs “Two”and “Growing Up Gayby,” as well as the...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sonejuhi Sinha – “Stray Dolls”
Sonejuhi Sinha has worked as a director and editor on acclaimed feature films, documentaries, and commercials. Her first narrative short, “Love Comes Later,” premiered at the 2015 Cannes...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Lesley Chilcott – “Watson”
Lesley Chilcott is an award-winning filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. She directed the feature documentaries “A Small Section of the World” and “CodeGirl,” the latter...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jane Gillooly – “Where the Pavement Ends”
Jane Gillooly is a director, producer, writer, and editor. A Guggenheim fellow, Gillooly is a nonfiction and narrative filmmaker committed to the art of narrative. Her work has screened at museums...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Bettina Perut – “Los Reyes”
Bettina Perut is a Chilean filmmaker born in Italy. She launched her career as an assistant director on documentary television shows. Her feature co-directing and co-producing credits include...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Patrizia Landi – “Ressaca”
Patrizia Landi is a Brazilian director, focused on documentaries and documentary series. “Ressaca” is her second feature film. In 2012, she directed “Hijas del Monte,” which...
Smashing Stigmas: Crowdfunding Picks
In her deeply personal book “The Cancer Journals,” Audre Lorde wrote about the value of speaking up. “My silences had not protected me,” she revealed. “Your silence will...
Under the Radar: “Circle of Steel” Is a Tender Portrait of Existential Crisis
Wendy Fong (Chantelle Han) is a young chemical engineer trapped inside a monotonous and ethically fraught existence. When she describes her tedious daily routine to a friend over drinks, her friend...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Julia Parnell – “The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps”
Julia Parnell is an award-winning producer and documentary director from New Zealand. Her work has been chosen for festivals in New Zealand and Australia such as DocEdge, NZIFF and MIFF, as well as...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Anna Odell – “X&Y”
Anna Odell is a Swedish conceptual artist and film director. In her 2013 feature debut “The Reunion,” she reenacted a 20-year class reunion, exploring tensions between victims, bullies,...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Hilary Brougher – “South Mountain”
Hilary Brougher is a writer and director. Her credits include “The Sticky Fingers of Time” and “Stephanie Daley.” The latter won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Erin Derham – “Stuffed”
Erin Derham is an award-winning film director who began her career editing and directing for PBS. Her films include “Buskin’ Blues,” a music documentary exploring the secretive lives of...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sandy K. Boone – “J.R. ‘Bob’ Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius”
Sandy K. Boone is a director and producer. She began making films in the 1980s with her late husband, filmmaker David Boone. She served as associate producer on “Richard Linklater: Dream is...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Trainer – “Museum Town”
Jennifer Trainer is an award-winning journalist and author of 19 books that have been translated into ten languages. She wrote the first story about Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for The...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Catalina Arroyave – “Days of the Whale”
Catalina Arroyave was born in Medellín, Colombia. In 2010 she co-funded Rara, an-art house producing company based in Medellín. She has worked as an assistant director and teacher for several...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jenna Ricker – “Qualified”
Jenna Ricker is a producer and director. In 2007, she wrote, directed, and produced her first feature film, “Ben’s Plan,” a coming-of-age drama made on a micro-budget, which was...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Carroll – “Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy”
Elizabeth Carroll is a director and producer. In 2013, she founded Honeywater Films to produce stories about food. She has directed video content for The New York Times. “Nothing Fancy: Diana...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Barbara Vekarić – “Aleksi”
Barbara Vekarić is a director and producer. She directed the travelogue documentary series “Couchsurfer Girl” and the children’s television show “Space Lab.” Vekarić...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Patricia Ortega – “Being Impossible”
Patricia Ortega is a director, screenwriter, and producer. She made her feature directorial debut with 2013’s “El Regreso.” “Being Impossible” is her second...