Interviews
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Numa Perrier – “Jezebel”
Numa Perrier is an actress, writer, producer, and director. She is the co-founder of Black&Sexy TV, a production company and streaming platform for television and film projects created by Black...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Amy C. Elliott – “Salvage”
Amy Elliott is a photographer and documentary filmmaker. She has been shooting motion and still editorial assignments for 20 years. Her previous features include 2014’s “Wicker...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet the Team Behind “Vai”
Becs Arahanga’s 2016 short film, “Laundry,” screened at the New Zealand International Film Festival. She recently completed filming on her next project, “Hinekura.” Amberley Jo...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Karen Maine – “Yes, God, Yes”
Karen Maine wrote and directed the 2017 short “Yes, God, Yes,” which premiered as a Vimeo Staff Pick and received 2.9 million views. It won Best Short at the St. Louis International Film...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Magdalena Zyzak – “The Wall of Mexico”
Magdalena Zyzak is a writer, producer, and director. She co-wrote and produced “Redland,” which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. In 2016, she teamed up with Zachary Cotler to direct...
SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Sankey – “Romantic Comedy”
Elizabeth Sankey is an English writer, musician, and actor. As a cultural commentator, she has written for The Guardian, NME, Vice, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. With her band, Summer Camp,...
“Greta” Star Chloë Grace Moretz on Fusing Art and Activism and Subverting Expectations
Chloë Grace Moretz has acted in over 60 projects over the course of her career, and she’s just 22 years old. Her latest pic, “Greta,” teams her up with Isabelle Huppert. Set in New...
Actress Mandi Masden on the Timeliness of Her Latest Play “The Light”
In Loy A. Webb’s debut play, “The Light,” Mandi Masden plays half of a couple on the eve of their engagement. As the night unfolds, the conversation becomes explosive, revealing that sexual...
“Fleabag” Director Vicky Jones Talks Bringing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Play Back to the Stage
Before “Fleabag” was making audiences laugh, cry, and squirm via the screen, it was doing so on the stage. The BBC Three/Amazon Prime series is based on series creator and star Phoebe...
Berlinale 2019 Women Directors: Meet Prune Nourry – “Serendipity”
Prune Nourry is a multi-disciplinary artist interested in science and anthropology. She combines sculpture, installation, performance, video, and photography in her work. Nourry has gained...
Chelsea Winstanley on Working with, Producing a Doc About Filmmaker Merata Mita
Ava DuVernay’s distribution collective recently acquired the documentary “Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen,” produced by filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley, during the Sundance Film...
Berlinale 2019 Women Directors: Meet Agnieszka Holland – “Mr. Jones”
Agnieszka Holland has made over 30 films, winning awards including the Golden Globe and Silver Bear, and has been nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy. Her films “In Darkness,” “Europa...
Berlinale 2019 Women Directors: Meet Lone Scherfig – “The Kindness of Strangers”
Lone Scherfig is an award-winning writer and director. Her first feature, “The Birthday Trip,” screened at the 1991 Berlinale and won several awards at festivals worldwide. Her more recent...
Beth Leavel on Broadway’s “The Prom” and Making LGBTQ History at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Beth Leavel’s career on the Broadway stage spans 30-plus years and includes an impressive roster of musicals such as “42nd Street,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Elf.”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet May el-Toukhy – “Queen of Hearts”
Writer-director May el-Toukhy worked in theater before moving to film. In addition to her feature directorial debut “Long Story Short,” she has directed radio dramas, stage plays, and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Cristina Ibarra – “The Infiltrators”
Cristina Ibarra has been making award-winning films that explore the U.S.-Mexico border for the past 16 years. Her PBS-broadcast documentary “Las Marthas” premiered on “Independent...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Petra Costa – “The Edge of Democracy”
Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker whose work encompasses both fiction and nonfiction. Her first film, “Elena,” premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Her...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nanfu Wang – “One Child Nation”
Nanfu Wang is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in New York City. Wang’s feature debut, “Hooligan Sparrow,” premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. It was...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Cristina Gallego – “Birds of Passage”
Cristina Gallego is a producer, editor, and director. Through her production company Ciudad Lunar she produced “La Sombra del Caminante,” “The Wind Journeys,” and “Embrace of the...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann – “Sister Aimee”
Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann are a married writing and directing duo. Their short films “The Mink Catcher” and “Canary” were screened at Telluride, SXSW, Palm Springs Shortsfest, and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jacqueline Olive – “Always in Season”
Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker and immersive media producer with more than a decade of experience in journalism and film. She co-directed and produced the award-winning short...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Bert & Bertie – “Troop Zero”
Bert & Bertie are a female writing-directing duo from London. Their combined backgrounds in photography and performance led them to filmmaking. Their credits include “Worm,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Anne Sewitsky – “Sonja – The White Swan”
Anne Sewitsky is a Norwegian-American filmmaker. Her debut film, “Happy Happy,” won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2011 and was Norway’s Academy Award entry the same year. Her next...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Hyde – “Animals”
Sophie Hyde’s debut fiction film “52 Tuesdays” won the directing award in the World Cinema Dramatic section at Sundance and the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Janice Engel – “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”
Janice Engel is an award-winning filmmaker and showrunner. Engel has made numerous documentaries, non-fiction television specials, and series including “Jackson Browne: Going Home,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Britt Poulton – “Them That Follow”
Britt Poulton is a writer and director. After studying International Relations at UC Berkeley, she left politics to pursue film and completed her MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She wrote...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Gurinder Chadha – “Blinded by the Light”
Gurinder Chadha’s award-winning films have earned over $300 million at the international box office. Her film credits include “Bhaji on the Beach,” “Bend It Like Beckham,” and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Minhal Baig – “Hala”
Minhal Baig is a writer and director. In 2017, she was chosen as a directing mentee for Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation Directing Mentorship. Currently, she is a story editor on Netflix’s...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Irene Taylor Brodsky – “Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements”
Irene Taylor Brodsky is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker. Her first feature film, “Hear and Now,” won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 2007 as well as a...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Rachel Leah Jones – “Advocate”
Rachel Leah Jones is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer whose work focuses on Israel and Palestine. Her directing credits include “500 Dunam on the Moon,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Mirrah Foulkes – “Judy and Punch”
Mirrah Foulkes is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, and director. Foulkes has directed three short films: “Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke,” “Florence Has Left The...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Rachel Lears – “Knock Down the House”
Rachel Lears is a director, writer, producer, and cinematographer. She is a 2013 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and director of the Emmy-nominated documentary “The Hand That Feeds,” which was...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Chinonye Chukwu – “Clemency”
Chinonye Chukwu is a filmmaker, educator, and social justice advocate. “Clemency” is her second feature film. The script was a 2017 Athena List winner for best feature script featuring a female...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe – “Greener Grass”
Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe are an award-winning writing and directing team. DeBoer and Luebbe recently directed two episodes of TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything,” and in 2017, they sold a...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Tayarisha Poe – “Selah and the Spades”
Tayarisha Poe is a storyteller from West Philly. She was chosen as one of the “25 new faces of independent film” by Filmmaker magazine in 2015, and in 2016 she received the Sundance...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Alice Waddington – “Paradise Hills”
Alice Waddington’s first short 2015’s “Disco Inferno,” was invited to 65 international film festivals, including Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Director and Best Feature...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sacha Polak – “Dirty God”
Sacha Polak is an award-winning director and screenwriter. Her feature films “Hemel” and “Zurich” were both screened ata range of international film festivals. “Hemel” was awarded the...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Debra Eisenstadt – “Imaginary Order”
Debra Eisenstadt is a writer, director, producer, and editor. She wrote, produced, directed, shot, and edited the feature film “Daydream Believer,” which won a 2002 Independent Spirit...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ursula Macfarlane – “Untouchable”
Ursula Macfarlane is an award-winning UK-based documentary filmmaker. Her films include “One Deadly Weekend in America,” “Charlie Hebdo: Three Days That Shook Paris,” and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – “Hail Satan?”
Penny Lane has previously directed feature documentaries “The Pain of Others,” “Our Nixon,” and “Nuts!” Her work has screened at International Film Festival...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nisha Ganatra – “Late Night”
Nisha Ganatra is a director and producer of “Transparent,” which won a Golden Globe for best television series, musical or comedy, and received numerous Emmy nominations. She recently...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Lulu Wang – “The Farewell”
Lulu Wang is a classical-pianist-turned-filmmaker. Born in Beijing, raised in Miami, and educated in Boston, Wang is a recipient of the 2014 Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, awarded at the...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Martha Stephens – “To the Stars”
Martha Stephens is a writer and director. Her micro-budget feature films “Passenger Pigeons” and “Pilgrim Song” premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. She co-wrote and co-directed “Land...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Baichwal – “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch”
Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for over 20 years. Her award-winning films include “Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles,” “Watermark,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Kim Longinotto – “Shooting the Mafia”
Kim Longinotto is an award-winning documentarian known for making films about female outsiders and rebels. Among her 20 films, she has followed a teenager struggling to become a wrestling star in...
Vicky Jewson on Telling the Story of a Female Bodyguard in Noomi Rapace-Starrer “Close”
Vicky Jewson began her career at age 16, directing several short films. She founded her production company, Jewson Film, at age 18. Jewson made her feature directorial debut with the 2006’s...
“On the Basis of Sex” Director Mimi Leder on Finding Inspiration and Common Ground with RBG
“On the Basis of Sex” is a movie that takes place in the 1950s but, sadly, feels like it could be set yesterday or tomorrow. The early years of the now-notorious RBG are basically a superhero...
Cailee Spaeny on Playing RBG’s Daughter in “On the Basis of Sex”
2018 marked a big year for Cailee Spaeny. She had major roles in sci-fi “Pacific Rim Uprising” and thriller “Bad Times at the El Royale.” Two of her films released last...
Lileana Blain-Cruz on Questioning the Status Quo in “Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine”
Director Lileana Blain-Cruz’s latest play, “Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine,” sees her telling the story of Undine, a powerful and wealthy publicist who falls down the...
Christine Lahti Discusses Playing Gloria Steinem in Off-Broadway’s “Gloria: A Life”
When Christine Lahti was offered the role of Gloria Steinem in the Off-Broadway play “Gloria: A Life,” she knew it would resonate on many levels. After all, she has known Steinem for...
“Bumblebee” Writer Christina Hodson on Creating Female Characters Who Don’t Need To Be Saved
“Bumblebee” is a new take on the “Transformers” franchise. Finally, one of these films is watchable — and in fact really enjoyable. Hailee Steinfeld takes the lead and...