Interviews
Anna Rose Holmer on Hysteria and Collaboration in Her Genre-Blending Dance Film “The Fits”
Anna Rose Holmer was listed as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film 2015.” She recently produced Jody Lee Lipes’ “Ballet 422” and Mike Plunkett’s “Salero.”...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Eve Marson — “Dr. Feelgood”
Eve Marson is a Harvard graduate, born and raised in New York City. She was the lead producer on the feature documentary “Fed Up,” an exposé of the food industry with journalist Katie Couric...
Effie Brown on “Project Greenlight,” Inclusiveness, and Loving Comic Book Films
You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past year to not know about the whole Effie Brown, Matt Damon, “Project Greenlight,” “Did he really say that? Oh god he did,” debacle....
Alicia Slimmer on Bad Dog Actors and Her Kick-Ass Retro Soundtrack in “Creedmoria”
Alicia Slimmer has worked on many independent films as an actor, assistant director, set dresser, and producer. “Creedmoria” is her debut feature film. It took home the juried prize of Best...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Tracy Wares — “Political Animals”
Tracy Wares has made documentaries on five continents. She’s worked on projects such as “Bomb It,” “Gay Republicans,” and “Smokin’ Fish.” Wares’ work has aired on ABC, PBS,...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Alexi Pappas — “Tracktown”
Alexi Pappas completed her thesis in poetry at Dartmouth College where she graduated magna cum laude before running off to compete in the 2012 Olympic Track & Field Trials. Alexi then joined the...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Saman — “Namour”
Heidi Saman was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces to Watch in 2014. Her short film, “The Maid (Il Shaghala),” premiered as an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in...
Jojo Moyes on Creating “Me Before You” From Book to Film
Author Jojo Moyes penned the screenplay for the upcoming film “Me Before You,” which opens June 3, a love story about two very different characters who should have never met, but do due to very...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Amber Tamblyn — “Paint It Black”
Amber Tamblyn is a writer, director, and actress from Los Angeles. She has received an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nomination for her work in television and film. Her acting...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors Meet Chanya Button — “Burn Burn Burn”
Chanya Button made her start in the industry at an early age, working as an Assistant Director on the “Harry Potter” feature-film franchise. Button has since worked extensively across both the...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maria Govan — “Play the Devil”
Maria Govan is a self-taught filmmaker from the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. After working on sets in Hollywood, she returned home and began making small guerilla-style local...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Leila Djansi — “Like Cotton Twines”
Leila Djansi began her directing career while still studying at the ArtCenter College of Art and Design. Her directorial debut “I Sing of a Well” netted an unprecedented 11 nominations at the...
“Me Before You” Director Thea Sharrock on Choosing Emilia Clarke and Her Film Debut
“Me Before You” is Thea Sharrock’s film directorial debut. Plucked from the London theater scene, she was brought in to direct one of the most popular novels in the world; one that has spent...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Amber Sealey — “No Light and No Land Anywhere”
Amber Sealey is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and performer. Her films include “A Plus D” (2008), and “How to Cheat” (2011), which won the Best Performance Award at the Los Angeles...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Jac Gares — “FREE CeCe!”
Jac Gares is a New York-based filmmaker and freelance television producer. From 2009 to 2012, she served as series producer for “In The Life” on public television. During her tenure, the series...
LA Film Fest 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anisia Uzeyman — “Dreamstates”
Film director and actress Anisia Uzeyman was born in Rwanda and studied drama at the Superior School of Theater in France. She has written and directed four plays, and recently starred in the award...
Sundance London 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elyse Steinberg — “Weiner”
Elyse Steinberg wrote, produced, and directed the acclaimed feature documentary “The Trial of Saddam Hussein” (PBS), an explosive exposé on what really happened at the former dictator’s...
Sundance London 2016 Women Directors: Meet Clea DuVall — “The Intervention”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Clea DuVall began working as an actor at 18 and quickly became a fixture in television and film. Some of her credits include the Academy Award–winning film...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maura Anderson — “Heartland”
Maura Anderson has worked in independent film production since 2006. She production managed Academy Award-nominated “Winter’s Bone,” as well as “On the Ice” and “Ceremony,” among...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Shaleece Haas — “Real Boy”
Shaleece Haas is co-producer of the 2013 documentary “The Genius of Marian,” director of the documentary short “Old People Driving,” and producer of several short films including “City...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Carly Usdin — “Suicide Kale”
Carly Usdin spent several years with Viacom Media Networks. During that time she created award-winning promo campaigns for shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and produced an on-air music series...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nneka Onuorah — “The Same Difference”
Nneka Onuorah started her career at Viacom by being dubbed the “Super-Intern” at BET Networks by The New York Times in an article titled “Dancer at Heart, an Executive in the Making.” After...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Cecilia Aldarondo — “Memories of a Penitent Heart”
Cecilia Aldarondo holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Skidmore College. She was the inaugural recipient of the Roberto Guerra Documentary...
Inside Out 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Rotella — “Almost Adults”
Sarah Rotella directs short films, web series, and features. “Almost Adults” is her debut feature length film. Her directing efforts have garnered over 68 million YouTube views and her films...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Shirley Abraham — “The Cinema Travellers”
“The Cinema Travellers” is Shirley Abraham’s feature directorial debut. The documentary was co-directed by Amit Madheshiya. The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Houda Benyamina — “Divines”
After completing her diploma at ERAC (Acting School for the Cannes Region), Houda Benyamina gained training as a director through the 1000 Faces association, which she founded in 2006 as a way of...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Domenica Cameron-Scorsese — “Almost Paris”
Domenica Cameron-Scorsese is a Tribeca alum whose short films “Spanish Boots” and “Roots in Water” played the festival. Her first short, “A Little God,” won the Torchlight Short Film...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Julia Ducournau — “Raw”
Julia Ducournau’s previous credits include “Mange,” a television movie made for Canal plus, and “Junior,” a short. According to her bio, each of her films has been about physical...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Shahrbanoo Sadat — “Wolf and Sheep”
Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan screenwriter and director. Sadat’s first short fiction film, “Vice Versa One,” was selected at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2011. In 2013, she launched her...
Cannes 2016 Women Directors: Meet Stéphanie Di Giusto — “The Dancer”
Stéphanie Di Giusto co-wrote “The Dancer,” which marks her feature directorial debut. “The Dancer” will premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 13. W&H: Describe the film for...
Natalie Johns on Her Inspiring Skateboarding Doc “I Am Thalente”
Natalie Johns was born in Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa, and moved to London in 1997 to begin a career specializing in live entertainment television and documentary film. In 2013, she moved to...
Listen: Podcast with Maxine Peake
British actress Maxine Peake talked to Women and Hollywood about taking on one of the most sought after, challenging roles in history — Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Peake spoke with us about her...
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on Hollywood After 50 and “Grace and Frankie” Season 2
“Grace and Frankie”: Netflix Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s resumes are long and illustrious, and of course include “9 to 5,” the popular feminist tale they made together in the 70s. Both are...
Louise Osmond on the Village That Inspired Her Underdog Doc “Dark Horse”
Director Louise Osmond started her career at the UK network ITN in their news journalism graduate trainee program, covering stories in Europe and Africa before moving into documentaries. Her most...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Marcie Hume — “Magicians: Life in the Impossible”
Marcie Hume began her documentary career in factual television in London. She has produced and directed a range of series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel. Along...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rama Thiaw — “The Revolution Won’t Be Televised”
Rama Thiaw is a writer, director, and producer at Boul Falle Images, a Senegalese film production company. Mauritanian and Senegalese, she grew up between Senegal and Europe. She has previously...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Helena Třeštíková— “Mallory”
Helena Třeštíková has directed forty films since graduating from Prague’s FAMU film school in 1974. Recently, Trestikova’s works have been the subject of retrospectives at several major...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Hélène Choquette — “A Dog’s Life”
Hélène Choquette has been dedicating herself to making documentaries on social and political issues since she made her debut as a camerawoman and photographer in 2001. She co-directed the...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Catalina Mesa — “Infinite Flight of Days”
Catalina Mesa grew up in Colombia. She went to Boston College and graduated with a degree in Management & Communications. She then worked in New York in a production company. From there she...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Laura Dunn— “The Seer”
Laura Dunn started making documentaries in response to her undergraduate experience at Yale University. Through a chronicle of labor strikes on campus, “The Subtext of a Yale Education” examines...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Hollie Fifer — “The Opposition”
Hollie Fifer’s documentaries are inspired by true life stories that are too bizarre and courageous to believe. Her first documentary was commissioned by Australian Volunteers International,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Beth Murphy — “What Tomorrow Brings”
Beth Murphy is founder of Boston-based Principle Pictures and Director of GroundTruth Films. Her work as producer, director, journalist, writer, and photographer is focused on human rights,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Trisha Ziff — “The Man Who Saw Too Much”
Trisha Ziff’s feature documentary credits include “Chevolution” and “The Mexican Suitcase.” Ziff’s “Pirate Copy; Pirate Stories” is a collection of three shorts following a road trip...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Zaynê Akyol— “Gulîstan, Land of Roses”
Zaynê Akyol is an award-winning filmmaker of Kurdish origin who was born in Turkey and raised in Quebec. Akyol won the René Malo Chair/National Film Board of Canada award for most promising...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Brandenburg — “When Two Worlds Collide”
Heidi Brandenburg co-founded Yachaywasi Films to explore social and environmental issues and challenge audiences to rethink preconceptions. Born in Paraguay and raised in Peru and Germany, she now...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Katja Gauriloff — “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest”
Katja Gauriloff was born in Inari, Finland and is part of Lapland’s indigenous Sami Skolt tribe. Today she is a film director and co-owner of the Oktober Production Company. Her previous...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anjali Nayar — “Gun Runners”
Anjali Nayar’s award-winning filmmaking and journalism work has explored myriad topics, ranging from climate change to political activism to pop culture. In her fractionally fictional documentary,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors — Meet Monika Grassl — “Girls Don’t Fly”
Monika Grassl was born in in Vienna, Austria. In 2006 she wrote an analysis about Austrian documentary filmmaking for the Vienna Film Fund. She also created monthly portraits about unusual people...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Francesca Scalisi— “Half-Life in Fukushima”
Francesca Scalisi is an Italian director and editor. She is a co-founder of “Dok Mobile,” a film production company based in Switzerland. In 2015, she directed and produced the short film,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Alethea Arnaquq-Baril — “Angry Inuk”
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril is an Inuit filmmaker from the Canadian Arctic, where her production company, Unikkaat Studios, is based. For her award-winning APTN documentary “Tunniit: Retracing the Lines...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Susanne Regina Meures — “Raving Iran”
Susanne Regina Meures was born in west Germany. She studied photography and art history at The Courtauld in London and film at the Zurich University of the Arts. She worked for numerous print...