Interviews
Berlinale 2023 Women Directors: Meet Emily Atef – “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything”
Emily Atef is a French-Iranian filmmaker who was born in Berlin. She studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Her first feature film, “Molly’s...
Berlinale 2023 Women Directors: Meet Malika Musayeva – “The Cage is Looking for a Bird”
Malika Musayeva was born in Grozny, Chechen Republic. During the Second Chehen War in 1999, she fled the Chechen Republic. During her studies at Russia’s Kabardino-Balkarian State University...
Berlinale 2023 Women Directors: Meet Frauke Finsterwalder – “Sisi & I”
Frauke Finsterwalder was born in Hamburg and studied film directing at HFF Munich. She previously worked at theaters and as a journalist. Her debut feature film, “Finsterworld,” received...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Sierra Urich – “Joonam”
Sierra Urich rew up in a small town nestled in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Raised by her Persian mother and American-born father, she grew up speaking English, never learning her...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Rebecca Landsberry-Baker – “Bad Press”
Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program grantee, Ford Foundation JustFilms grantee, and a 2022 NBC Original Voices Fellow. She is a 2022 Gotham Documentary Feature...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Amanda Kim – “Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV”
Amanda Kim is a Korean American director and producer. A former creative director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video direction for i-D, Creators, and Garage magazine. Kim also worked on Viceland,...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Michèle Stephenson – “Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”
Michèle Stephenson is a filmmaker, artist, and author who pulls from her Haitian and Panamanian roots to think radically about storytelling and disrupt the imaginary in non-fiction spaces. She tells...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Alejandra Vasquez – “Going Varsity in Mariachi”
Alejandra Vasquez is a Mexican-American filmmaker and producer. Raised in rural Texas, she tells stories about the lives of immigrants and activists, typically from rural communities similar to her...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Chloe Domont – “Fair Play”
Chloe Domont is a writer and director whose short films “Haze” and “All Good Things” have been included in the Official Selection of BAMcinemaFest, AFI FEST, LA Film Festival,...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Barthes – “The Pod Generation”
Sophie Barthes is a Franco-American filmmaker. Her directorial debut, “Cold Souls,” was released by Samuel Goldwyn and played in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Her second...
Sundance 2023 Women Directors: Meet Rachel Lambert – “Sometimes I Think About Dying”
Rachel Lambert is a writer-director whose debut feature, “In the Radiant City,” premiered at rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival. She received her BFA from Boston...
Sarah Schenck on Exploring How to Harness the Power of Our Microbes in “The Invisible Extinction”
Sarah Schenck is a writer, director, and producer who is deeply passionate about using filmmaking to advance public health goals for diverse audiences. She makes shorts for nonprofit organizations...
Alison Star Locke on the Coexistence of Accountability and Compassion in “The Apology”
Alison Star Locke began her writing career as a story producer for reality TV and has written, directed, and produced numerous shorts. Her favorite, “Shhhhhhh…,” was laureled-up by the Los...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Marusya Syroechkovskaya – “How to Save a Dead Friend”
Marusya Syroechkovskaya is a Moscow-born award-winning filmmaker and visual artist who had to flee Russia in March 2022 as the crackdown on opposition voices increased. Her student short film,...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Dawn Porter – “Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net”
Dawn Porter is an award-winning writer and producer. Her work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, CNN, PBS, MSNBC, MTV Films, and other platforms. Porter’s 2016 film “Trapped,” which explores...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Marianela Maldonado – “Children of Las Brisas”
Director and writer Marianela Maldonado has helmed several short fiction films including “The Look of Happiness” and “Breaking Out,” both of which premiered at Cannes Film Festival. She has...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Alexis Neophytides – “Dear Thirteen”
Alexis Neophytides is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and educator based in New York City. Her work centers around community and how we find meaning in people and place. She is the co-creator,...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Karen Cho – “Big Fight in Little Chinatown”
Karen Cho (曹嘉伦) is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker known for her socio-political documentaries that explore themes of identity, immigration, and social justice. Her first film, “In The Shadow Of...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tal Inbar – “Closed Circuit”
Tal Inbar is an independent filmmaker based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. During her studies, Inbar directed “The Home Front,” a short documentary about the Sarona terror attack, for which she won first...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Christine Yoo – “26.2 to Life”
Christine Yoo is a director, producer, writer, a volunteer at San Quentin State Prison, and co-founder of the San Quentin Film Festival. As a producer she has worked on non-fiction series for...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sharon “Rocky” Roggio – “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture”
Sharon “Rocky” Roggio has been honing her expertise in film and television producing for two decades and has worked on award-winning films and series, including “House of Cards,” “Parks and...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Elwira Niewiera – “The Hamlet Syndrome”
Elwira Niewiera is a Polish director and screenwriter of documentary films such as “Domino Effect” and “The Prince and the Dybbuk.” In her artistic work, she focuses primarily on political,...
DOC NYC 2022 Women Directors: Meet Fatimah Dadzie – “Fati’s Choice”
As a filmmaker, Fatimah Dadzie’s forte is in telling compelling stories about marginalized groups. She previously directed “success stories,” about the reproductive health of adolescent girls....
Titi Yu Talks Community Organizing & Healing in “Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day in March”
Titi Yu is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and journalist. Most recently, she won two Emmys for her investigative journalism with VICE News. She is also a recipient of the New York...
Kestrin Pantera on Embracing Fun and Tackling Income Inequality in “Pretty Problems”
Kestrin Pantera is a writer and director whose last feature, “Mother’s Little Helpers” world premiered at SXSW 2019 and landed awards including Best Feature Film, Best Director,...
“In the Bones” Director Kelly Duane de la Vega Talks Mississippi and Fighting the Patriarchy
Kelly Duane de la Vega’s award-winning documentaries have screened at film festivals worldwide, opened theatrically, and broadcast nationally on PBS and Netflix. “The Two Killings of Sam...
NYFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Margaret Brown – “Descendant”
Margaret Brown’s documentary work examines the American South, from a seminal film on Townes Van Zandt “Be Here to Love Me,” to the impactful story of the BP oil spill’s lasting impact “The...
NYFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Huang Ji – “Stonewalling”
Huang Ji is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Beijing. Born in Hunan in 1984, she studied screenwriting in the Beijing Film Academy. Since her first short film, “The Warmth of...
Saela Davis & Anna Rose Holmer on Exploring the Fragility of Forgiveness in “God’s Creatures”
Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer are filmmakers based in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past decade, they’ve collaborated on multiple short- and long-form fiction and nonfiction works. Each has...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Chandler Levack – “I Like Movies”
Chandler Levack grew up in Burlington, Ontario, and lives in Toronto where she studied cinema at the University of Toronto and screenwriting at the Canadian Film Centre. She has directed numerous...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Rima Das – “Tora’s Husband”
Rima Das is a filmmaker from India known for making indigenous and realistic stories that explore complicated relationships, finding purpose, coming of age and life amidst nature. Her films...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Luis De Filippis – “Something You Said Last Night”
Luis De Filippis is a Canadian-Italian filmmaker whose work has played at festivals such as TIFF, Rotterdam, and Sundance, where her most recent work, “For Nonna Anna,” received a Special...
Agnieszka Smoczyńska on Exploring the Bond Between Sisters in “The Silent Twins”
Agnieszka Smoczyńska is a Polish film and television writer and director. She is an alumnus of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice. She is most known for her debut feature film...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Gabriela Cowperthwaite – “The Grab”
Gabriela Cowperthwaite has been directing both documentaries and narrative films for over 20 years. She directed the 2013 documentary “Blackfish,” which amassed over 100 million viewers...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Lindsay MacKay – “The Swearing Jar”
Lindsay MacKay is a writer and director. MacKay is a graduate of the York University Film program and went on to get her Masters in Directing from the AFI Conservatory. Her debut feature, “Wet...
TIFF 2022 Directors: Meet Joseph Amenta – “Soft”
Joseph Amenta was born in Toronto and has an honors degree in film studies from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). They have directed the short films “Cherry...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Angela Wanjiku Wamai – “Shimoni” (“The Pit”)
Angela Wanjiku Wamai works as a film editor in Nairobi, Kenya. She was recently awarded best film editor by the Women in Film Awards – Kenya. In 2018 she wrote “I Had to Bury...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Carmen Jaquier – “Thunder”
Swiss film director Carmen Jaquier graduated from the Cantonal School of Art in Lausanne (ECAL) in 2011. Her graduation film, “The Girls’ Gravere,” went on to receive the Pardino...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Marie Kreutzer – “Corsage”
Marie Kreutzer has had a hand in many Austrian film productions. Her first feature film, “The Fatherless”(“Die Vaterlosen”) (2011), has been shown and awarded at numerous...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Jub Clerc – “Sweet As”
Jub Clerc is a Nyul Nyul/Yawuru woman from the Kimberley in Western Austrlia. Clerc spent many years in theatre before moving into film and television, working on multiple award-winning productions....
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Lila Neugebauer – “Causeway”
Lila Neugebauer is a theater, film, and television director from New York City. Her stage work includes the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery,” starring...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Frances O’Connor -“Emily”
Frances O’Connor is an Australian-English actress living in London who is best known for her film roles in “Mansfield Park” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Her TV...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Liliane Mutti – “Miúcha, The Voice of Bossa Nova”
Born in Salvador, Brazil, Liliane Mutti is the founder of the Ciné Nova Bossa Association in Paris. She produces and directs films with strong political engagement, such as “Ecocide,”...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Kargman – “Susie Searches”
Sophie Kargman is a director, writer, producer, and actor based in Los Angeles. Her short film “Query,” which she also co-wrote and produced, had its world premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tamana Ayazi – “In Her Hands”
Tamana Ayazi is a filmmaker and journalist from Afghanistan. She has a background in business, sports, and activism. She is a NatGeo explorer who uses storytelling as a tool to advocate for equality...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Amy Redford – “Roost”
Amy Redford’s career in the creative arts spans over three decades as a director, producer, and actor in film, television, music videos, and theater. “The Guitar” marked her directorial...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Bess Wohl – “Baby Ruby”
Bess Wohl is a writer, director, and playwright. In theater, her play “Grand Horizons” was nominated for a Tony Award. In film and television she has developed projects with Amazon, HBO,...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Aitch Alberto – “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe”
Aitch Alberto is a writer and director born and raised in Miami, Florida. She is a Sundance Episodic Lab fellow, the recipient of a Skowhegan Artist Residency, a Yaddo fellowship, and a Latino...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Stephanie Johnes – “Maya and the Wave”
Stephanie Johnes is a director, producer, and documentary filmmaker who gravitates toward stories of underdogs and dreamers. Her directorial debut, “Doubletime,” premiered at SXSW and Tribeca and...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Levin and Vanessa Winter – “V/H/S/99”
Maggie Levin is a filmmaker with rock ‘n’ roll roots. She served as second unit director and credit designer for Universal’s “The Black Phone,” in theaters now....
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Mary Nighy – “Alice, Darling”
Mary Nighy is a UK-based director who has directed episodes of “Industry,” a new series for HBO and Bad Wolf, and “Traces,” a new series for Red Productions. Nighy was the...