Interviews
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...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Tasha Hubbard – “nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up”
Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a writer, filmmaker, and associate professor at the University of Alberta. Her first solo writing/directing project, “Two Worlds Colliding,” premiered at imagineNATIVE in...
“Gentleman Jack’s” Sally Wainwright and Suranne Jones on Bringing Anne Lister to Life
Sally Wainwright (“Happy Valley”) has reclaimed Anne Lister in a bold way in the HBO limited series “Gentleman Jack.” Suranne Jones (“Scott & Bailey,”...
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 Anne Fontaine – “White as Snow”
Anne Fontaine started her career as a dancer and actor. She made her feature directorial debut with 1993’s “Love Affairs Usually End Badly,” which won France’s Prix Jean Vigo...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy – “Blow the Man Down”
Wesleyan University graduates Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy met on a film set in Coney Island. They immediately bonded over a shared love of character-driven stories and juicy filmmaking...
Tribeca 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin – “Scheme Birds”
Ellen Fiske is a director, writer, and producer. She directed the award-winning short films “Keep Me Safe” and “Lone Dads,” both set in Scotland. She is currently co-directing another...
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...
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson on Gina Rodriguez-Starrer “Someone Great” & Telling Women’s Stories
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is best known for creating MTV’s “Sweet/Vicious,” a comedy about two college students who have a secret life as vigilantes targeting sexual assailants on...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Malla Grapengiesser – “Giants and the Morning After”
Malla Grapengiesser has a background in art, theater, and performance art. In 1994, she established the independent film production company Hysteria Film AB alongside Antonio Russo Merenda. Her...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Tania Hernández Velasco – “Titixe”
Tania Hernández Velasco is a Mexican film director, producer, and editor. Her short films have screened at several international film festivals, including ZagrebDox and San Sebastian International...
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 Jacqueline Zünd – “Where We Belong”
Jacqueline Zünd was born in Zurich, Switzerland. Her debut film, “Goodnight Nobody,” has been shown at many international film festivals and won numerous awards such as Best Newcomer at...
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 Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran – “Decade of Fire”
An educator and facilitator, Vivian Vázquez Irizarry ran educational and youth leadership development programs at the Coro Foundation and BronxWorks, and is currently the director of...
Full Frame 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sahra Mani – “A Thousand Girls Like Me”
Sahra Mani is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, university lecturer, and founder of Afghanistan Documentary House. Her films include “Kaloo School” and “Beyond the Burka.” “A...
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...
Actress Mirirai Sithole Talks About Her New Play & Why She Considers Inclusive Projects the Norm
When it comes to working with women, actress Mirirai Sithole has been very fortunate. From playwrights Jocelyn Bioh and Ngozi Anyanwu to the gals behind “Broad City” and “Russian Doll,”...
Jessie Nelson On Her New Off-Broadway Show “Alice By Heart” and Advice from Nora Ephron
Jessie Nelson’s most recent musical, “Alice By Heart,” has been a work in progress for the past 10 years. After kicking off in her living room, it has been workshopped and refined until it...
“Women, War & Peace’s” Abigail Disney On Funding Women Filmmakers and Redefining War
Abby Disney is one of the those people who has been at the intersection of feminist work in New York for the last 25 years. She has been the board chair of the New York Women’s Foundation and...
Playwright Bekah Brunstetter on “The Cake,” Working on “This Is Us,” and The Kilroys
After three years of working on NBC’s hit series “This Is Us,” writer and producer Bekah Brunstetter is bringing two plays to the NYC stage this year: “The Cake” is now...
Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre Talks About Her New Film “The Mustang”
To achieve a sense of realism in “The Mustang,” Laure de Clermont-Tonnere spent five years researching the U.S. prison system and animal therapy. Her new film focuses on an inmate, played by...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Brett Story – “The Hottest August”
Brett Story is an award-winning nonfiction filmmaker. Her 2016 feature documentary “The Prison in Twelve Landscapes” won the Special Jury Prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary...
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 Pollyanna McIntosh – “Darlin'”
Pollyanna McIntosh is an actress, writer, and director. Her acting credits include “The Walking Dead” and “The Last Tycoon.” “Darlin’” is her directorial debut. “Darlin’”...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Miia Tervo – “Aurora”
Miia Tervo is an award-winning director whose credits include “The Seal,” “The Little Snow Animal,” and “Clumsy Little Acts of Tenderness.” “Aurora” is...
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 Women Directors: Meet Julie Smith Clem – “It Started As A Joke”
Julie Smith Clem is the co-founder of Pretty Good Friends, a comedy production company. She’s produced shows for Comedy Central and Science Channel, co-created the Peabody Award-winning video...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Waad Al-Kateab – “For Sama”
Waad Al-Kateab is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She became a citizen journalist in 2011, after protests broke out across Syria against the Assad regime, and in January 2016 she...
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 Jenifer McShane – “Ernie & Joe”
Jenifer McShane is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her credits include “A Leap of Faith” and “Mothers of Bedford.” “Ernie & Joe” will premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film...
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 Women Directors: Meet Marlén Viñayo – “Cachada: The Opportunity”
Marlén Viñayo is a TV and film director, producer, and documentary screenwriter based in El Salvador. She has worked for PBS Frontline, BBC News, and CCTV Americas Now, among others. In...
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...
Jessica Frances Dukes On Portraying a Fictional Starlet in “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”
Jessica Frances Dukes takes on the titular role in the revival “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” an aspiring actress working for a fading star during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Written by...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Erin Lee Carr: “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter”
Erin Lee Carr is a writer, director, and producer. She recently directed an episode of Netflix’s “Dirty Money,” an investigation into price gouging tactics revolutionized by pharma...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Linda Goldstein Knowlton – “We Are The Radical Monarchs”
Linda Goldstein Knowlton is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker working in documentary and scripted feature films as well as television. She executive produced “Dream, Girl” and “Whale Rider.”...
“Captain Marvel’s” Brie Larson on Sharing Power and Changing Hollywood
I got lucky this week: I was able to spend some time with Brie Larson. She’s been keeping super busy on a global press tour for “Captain Marvel” but she managed to find time to talk...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Chelsea Hernandez – “Building the American Dream”
Chelsea Hernandez is a Mexican-American filmmaker based in Austin, Texas. She is an eight-time Emmy winning director, producer, and editor for her work on the PBS documentary series “Arts in...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Rebecca Stern – “Well Groomed”
Rebecca Stern is a director, writer, and producer. She started out in documentary filmmaking as the production coordinator of the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary “Cartel...
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...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Gabriela Calvache – “La Mala Noche”
Gabriela Calvache was born in Ecuador. Her short film “En Espera” (“On Hold”) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, screened at the Berlinale, and earned...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jessica Oreck – “One Man Dies a Million Times”
Jessica Oreck is a writer and director. Her first film, “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2010 and aired on PBS’ “Independent...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Kestrin Pantera – “Mother’s Little Helpers”
Kestrin Pantera is an actress, writer, and director. She made her feature debut with 2014’s “Let’s Ruin It with Babies,” and has since directed TV series such as “Bad Parent...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Emily Ting – “Go Back to China”
Emily Ting is a film writer, director, and producer. Her first narrative feature, “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,” premiered at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival, and was later screened at over...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Tracey Frazier – “Becoming Leslie”
Tracy Frazier first became involved in film production working as an assistant director on the feature film “Jumping Off Bridges.” Frazier went on to produce two short films,...