Interviews
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Ruba Nadda — ‘October Gale’
Ruba Nadda is a Montreal-born, Toronto-based filmmaker. She attended York University and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She has written and directed several feature films, including Sabah...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Atsuko Hirayanagi — ‘Oh Lucy!’
Atsuko Hirayanagi wasborn in Nagano and raised in Chiba, Japan. She is a recent graduate of NYUTisch School of The Arts, Asia, with an MFA in Film Production. Her short films have played at numerous...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Kasia Nalewajka — ‘Pineapple Calamari’
Kasia Nalewajka attended the National Film and Television School in London. She wrote and directed the animated short film Sacculina Carcini (2014), and co-wrote and directed the animated shorts...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Isabel Coixet — ‘Learning to Drive’
Isabel Coixet was born in Barcelona.Since her debut feature, Too Oldto Die Young (1989), she has directedThings I Never Told You (1996), My LifeWithout Me (2003), The Secret Life of Words...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Sophie Barthes — ‘Madame Bovary’
A Columbia University graduate, Sophie Barthes was born in France and grew up in the Middle East and South America. Barthes has just completed an English adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Yassmina Karajah — ‘Light’
Yassmina Karajah was born in Amman, Jordan, and is a graduate of the Bristol Law School. She studies film production at the University of British Columbia. In Light (2014), her directorial debut, a...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Marie-Ève Juste — ‘The Sands’
Based in Montreal, Marie-Ève Juste worked at the Cinémathèque Québécoise between 2003 and 2007, where she first got familiar with cinema history and practice. In 2011, she co-directed her first...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Lazebnik — ‘Liompa’
Elizabeth Lazebnik is quickly becoming a recognized name in the Canadian film industry. Her shorts have previously played at TIFF, the Montreal World Film Festival and received awards from WWSFF,...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Grazia Tricarico — ‘Persefone’
Grazia Tricarico attended the University of Milan and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. She has directed the short films Brightbox (2009), L’arte marziale (2010), Michele nella...
TIFF Women DIrectors: Meet Shonali Bose — ‘Margarita, With a Straw’
Shonali Bose was raised in Calcutta, Mumbai, and Delhi. She received her BA from Delhi University and her MA from Columbia before earning her MFA at UCLA film school. She made her feature debut as...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Tamara Erde — ‘This is My Land’
Tamara Erde was born in Tel Aviv. She studied at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and Le Fresnoy in France. In her first feature film, This is My Land, Erde visits six independently run Israeli and...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Lindsay MacKay — ‘Wet Bum’
Lindsay MacKay is the writer-director of WetBum, her debut feature film, which was named a Top 10 Finalist in theprestigious Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition. She is a graduate of theDirecting...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Linnea Saasen — ‘Meet Me in Montenegro’
Linnea Saasen was born and raised north of the Arctic Circle in Harstad,Norway. She moved to Oslo to study art before settling in Berlin, where sheworked as a contemporary dancer and performance...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Suha Arraf — ‘Villa Touma’
Suha Arraf was born in the Palestinian village of Melyia, near Lebanon. She began her filmmaking career as a documentary producer. Her latest work, Women of Hamas (2010), received 13 awards at...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Marte Vold — ‘Out of Nature’
Marte Vold (b. 1978 in Tromsø, Norway) studied film at Nordland Art andFilm School, attended the National Art Academy in Oslo, and then graduated fromthe Norwegian Film School in 2005. Between 2002...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Lone Scherfig — ‘The Riot Club’
Lone Scherfig was born inCopenhagen and graduated fromthe National Film School of Denmark.Her features Italian for Beginners(2000), Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002),Just Like Home (2007), and An...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Isidora Marras- ‘I Am Not Lorena’
Isidora Marras was born in Santiago, Chile, and studied audiovisual direction at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her short films include “Mirada a Vapor” (2008) and “En la Azotea”...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Laura Nix — ‘The Yes Men Are Revolting’
Laura Nix is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles.She has over seventy productioncredits and has directed the featurefilm The Politics of Fur (2002) and twofeature documentaries, The Light inHer Eyes...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Tala Hadid — ‘The Narrow Frame of Midnight’
Tala Hadid was born in London, graduated from Columbia University in NewYork City, and participated in the Sundance Institute Directors Lab. Her filmsinclude the documentary feature Sacred Poet, the...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Martine Époque — ‘Coda: The Finale for The Rite of Spring’
Choreographer Martine Époque is the founder of Montreal’s renowned contemporary dance company Groupe Nouvelle Aire and was its Artistic Director from 1968 to 1981. She was also the driving force...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Afia Nathaniel — ‘Dukhtar’
Afia Nathaniel was born in Quetta, Pakistan, grew up in Lahore, and is now based in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Columbia University’s Film Directing program. She directed the short films...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Kristina Grozeva (‘The Lesson’)
Kristina Grozeva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in1976. She graduated from the National Academy for Theater and Film Art with a degree in Film Directing. She and her co-director Petar Valchanov make...
‘Kelly & Cal’ Director Jen McGowan on Finding the Perfect Riot Grrrl and the Biggest Challenge for Indie Filmmakers
Delighted at being told sex is back inthe cards during her post-natal check-up, new mom Kelly (Juliette Lewis) hurries home to husbandJosh (Josh Hopkins) — but Josh doesn’t seem so keen on...
Signe Baumane Boldly Animates Family Depression in ‘Rocks in My Pockets’
Rocksin My Pockets is Signe Baumane’s autobiographical “funny film about depression,” made with papier-mache, stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. The rich, deep, and very original film...
‘To Be Takei’ Director Jennifer Kroot on George Takei’s “Singular Personality” and the Takeis’ “Functional-Dysfunctional” Marriage
Meet the Takeis — George and Brad — two married men who go around the country talking about Star Trek, gay marriage, and other important issues like the Japanese-American internment...
‘May in the Summer’ Writer-Director Cherien Dabis on Hiring Herself to Star in Her Film
May in the Summer is Cherien Dabis’ second film about people who live in two worlds. (Her debut was the Sundance hit Amreeka.) In addition to writing and directing, Dabis went in front of the...
‘Abuse of Weakness’ Director Catherine Breillat on How to Blackmail Isabelle Huppert Into Starring in Your Film
With her latest project, French auteur Catherine Breillat follows up brilliantly on her last two fairy-tale films, Bluebeard (2009) and The Sleeping Beauty (2010). The semi-autobiographical Abuse of...
Lyle Director Stewart Thorndike on Making the Lesbian Version of Rosemary’s Baby and the Need for Feminist Horror
You’veheard the story before: A pregnant woman suspects her neighbors are part of aSatanic cult, and they want her unborn child. As her paranoia grows, so doesthe danger. But is she truly the...
Director Mitra Farahani on Legendary Painter Bahman Mohassess and the Artist’s Plight in Iran
Nakedlimbs, tangled, dancing; gaping mouths; and sightless eyes — much of Iranianartist Bahman Mohassess’ work strikes the first-time viewer alternately as acelebration of the human...
Sundance Award-Winning Rich Hill Director Tracy Droz Tragos on the Injustice of Rural Poverty and How Motherhood Can Open Doors to Documentarians
“People expect me to have a better future than Ido. I don’t know what to do anymore.” So declares a twelve-year-old boy lessthan five minutes into this film, and at once we are ruthlessly...
Director Leigh Silverman on Mounting the Broadway Musical Violet and Working with Sutton Foster
Violet is one of those rare Broadway shows where less is more. The sparsely set stage is a perfect showcase for veteran Broadway actress Sutton Foster to soar in her Tony-nominated role. Foster...
Very Good Girls’ Naomi Foner on What She Learned as a First-Time Filmmaker and Why There Are So Few Women Directors
Very Good Girls, the first directing effort from veteran screenwriter Naomi Foner, is a nostalgic look at girls on the cusp of womanhood. While it is set in contemporary times, the girls, with...
Amanda de Cadenet on Becoming the Newest Women in Late-Night TV and How Chelsea Handler Opened Doors for Her
British personality and renowned photographer Amanda de Cadenet dives into the late-night talk-show field tonight with her live, half-hour, news- and pop culture-themed Undone with @AmandadeCadenet,...
A Five-Star Life Director Maria Sole Tognazzi on Rejecting the Trope of the Selfish Career Woman
It’sa debate as old as time: does a woman need a family in order to live afulfilled life? In Italian director Maria Sole Tognazzi’s A Five Star Life (out today), Irene (Margherita Bey), a...
Patricia Arquette on Why Boyhood is Winning Over Audiences and Why She Loves Network TV
Perhaps best known for playing the title character in NBC’s Medium (2005–2011), Patricia Arquette co-stars in Boyhood (out today), the passion project that director Richard Linklater filmed in...
Land Ho! Director Martha Stephens on Her Raunchy Comedy About Two Old Men and Her Unlikely Muse
Land Ho! tells the story of two very different ex-brothers-in-law whotravel to Iceland for a holiday. It’s about life and regrets and coming toterms with the fact that you are getting older....
Redemption Trail Director Britta Sjogren Talks About Her Modern-Day, Northern Californian Feminist Western
Whether we like it or not, some fictional genres are associated with men. What is more essential to American iconography than the brooding cowboy, standing alone on desert plains as he stares down...
Bound by Flesh Director Leslie Zemeckis on the Love Story Between Two Conjoined-Twin Sisters
Atthe height of their fame, conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were thetoast of vaudeville. They were among the highest-paid entertainers on thecircuit, and a young Bob Hope was part of their...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Zeina Daccache (Scheherazade’s Diary)
Zeina Daccache is a Lebanese actress, director, and drama therapist. She has directed the award-winning film and stage versions of 12 Angry Lebanese (2009, First Prize — Muhr Arab Documentary...
Human Rights Watch Women Directors: Meet Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly (The Homestretch)
Filmmakers and theater artists Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly have been making documentaries together for over a decade. Their work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Joanna Lipper (The Supreme Price)
JoannaLipper is an award-winning filmmaker and a lecturer at Harvard University, where sheteaches a course called “Using Film for SocialChange.” Her work as a documentary filmmaker has been...
AFI Docs Women Directors: Meet Laura Naylor (The Fix)
Writer-producer Laura Naylor first discovered her interest in documentary-style representation while studying visual arts and art history at Columbia University in New York City. In 2011, she...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Gren Wells (The Road Within)
Gren Wells was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. After attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, Wells moved to New York City, where she starred in six...
Human Rights Watch FF Director: Meet Blair Dorosh-Walther (Out in the Night)
Director and producer Blair Dorosh-Walther (who identifies as gender non-conforming and uses both male and female pronouns) is a social-issue documentary director, an experienced production...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler (Trouble Dolls)
Trouble Dolls marks Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler’s writing and directing debuts. Prediger has starred in Joe Swanberg’s Uncle Kent, Madeleine Olnek’s Foxy Merkins, and Hanna Fidell’s A...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Iva Radivojevic (Evaporating Borders)
Iva Radivojevic is an award-winning filmmaker who spent her early years in Yugoslavia and Cyprus before settling in NYC over a decade ago. Her work explores the themes of identity, migration and...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Rachel Beth Anderson (First to Fall)
Rachel Beth Anderson, a Sundance Award-winning cinematographer, has filmed around the world in several conflict zones, including Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, and South Sudan, for...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Jasmila Zbanic (For Those Who Can Tell No Tales)
Jasmila Zbanic is one of Europe’s most promising young directors. Her 2006 film Land of My Dreams won the Golden Bear at the Berlin international Film Festival, and her 2010 follow-up, On the...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Cynthia Hill
Cynthia Hill crafts documentaries that take a complex approach to critical contemporary issues, creating story-driven and visually rich films. Private Violence is Hill’s fourth feature...
LAFF Women Directors: Debra Granik on Stray Dog, Her Follow-Up to Winter’s Bone
Debra Granik is the director of Winter’s Bone, the 2010 drug drama set in the Ozarks that received four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (by Granik and Anne Rosellini),...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Alessandra Zeka and Holen Sabrina Kahn (A Quiet Inquisition)
Alessandra Zeka and Holen Sabrina Kahn have been producing documentary stories collaboratively since 1998. Their films have focused on Albania, Rwanda, India, Taiwan, Central America, and the U.S....