Interviews
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Annabel Verbeke – “Four Seasons in One Day”
Annabel Verbeke is a documentary filmmaker whose film “Les Enfants de la Mer/Mère” won eight international awards and was selected by over 20 global film festivals. “We Will Remember Them”...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Maéva Ranaïvojaona – “Zaho Zay”
Maéva Ranaïvojaona is a French filmmaker with Malagasy origins, living and working in Paris and Vienna. She wrote, produced, and directed two short films that have been shown and awarded at several...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Anaïs Taracena – “The Silence of the Mole”
Documentary filmmaker and producer Anaïs Taracena has directed short films “Los Médicos de la Montaña,” “Entre Voces,” and “Desenredar el Ser,” which have been screened at...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jessica Beshir – “Faya Dayi”
Jessica Beshir is a Mexican-Ethiopian director, producer, and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, New York. She made her directorial debut with her short film “Hairat,” which premiered at...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Sheona McDonald – “Dead Man’s Switch: a crypto mystery”
Sheona McDonald is an an award-winning filmmaker who worked in the Canadian film and television industry as a writer, producer, and director for over two decades. Her recent films include “Into...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Yasmine Mathurin – “One of Ours”
Yasmine Mathurin is a Haitian-Canadian writer, director, and award-winning podcast producer. She produced the audio-fiction podcast “The Shadows,” which won Gold in the fiction category at the...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Redfearn – “Apart”
Jennifer Redfearn is an Academy Award-nominated director. She directed and produced “Sun Come Up” about a small island community losing their land to rising seas. “Sun Come...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Margaret Byrne – “Any Given Day”
Margaret Byrne is an award-winning filmmaker. She directed and produced “Raising Bertie,” a feature documentary following the lives of three African American boys growing up in rural...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Louise Detlefsen – “It Is Not Over Yet”
Louise Detlefsen’s latest documentary feature film, “Fat Front,” had its international premiere at IDFA 2019. Her films have been shown on both television and at festivals all over...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers – “Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy”
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a writer, director, producer and actor. She’s a member of the Kainai First Nation — Blood Tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy — as well as Sámi from Norway. Her...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Chloe Fairweather – “Dying to Divorce”
Chloe Fairweather is an award-winning director who specializes in observational documentary and the telling of complex true stories. The Welsh-born filmmaker started out in TV production over 10...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Caitlin Durlak – “Dropstones”
Caitlin Durlak is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker whose non-fiction work has spanned media such as web series, short film, feature film, and VR storytelling. Her short film “Persistence of...
Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Ngo – “Faceless”
Jennifer Ngo is an award-winning journalist who believes that true stories will always matter. For over five years, she wrote for the South China Morning Post, where her reporting earned her a Human...
Maureen Bharoocha Talks “Golden Arm” and Centering a Buddy Comedy Around Women Athletes
When Maureen Bharoocha isn’t directing for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” she’s on a feature film set. Her two features, “I Am Watching You” and “Fatal Flip,” recently...
“Best Summer Ever’s” Lauren Smitelli on Making an Inclusive Musical & the Importance of Representation
Interview by Meghan Gheron Lauren Smitelli is a writer, director, and producer. As an alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, her work has been exhibited at SXSW, Sundance, Venice, and the...
Bettina Oberli on Tearing a Family Apart to Bring Them Together in “My Wonderful Wanda”
One of Switzerland’s leading directors, Bettina Oberli’s award-winning debut, “North Wind,” premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Her second feature,...
“The Power” Writer-Director Corinna Faith on Tackling Toxic Institutions in a Period Setting
Corinna Faith is a writer-director working across TV and film. She began work as a film camera assistant before moving into directing factual television. After 10 years in that role, she started...
“The Place That Makes Us” Director Karla Murthy on Highlighting Community Leaders in Youngstown, Ohio
Karla Murthy is an Emmy Award-nominated producer. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers, and has been a producer, cameraperson, and correspondent for various PBS news...
“Shtisel” Producer Dikla Barkai on the Show’s Worldwide Reception, Season 3, & Shooting During COVID
Even though Israeli producer Dikla Barkai has a lengthy résumé of hit television, she is very selective about the shows she works on. After producing three seasons of the award-winning...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Manal Khaled – “Trapped”
Manal Khaled is an Egyptian filmmaker who studied Philosophy at the University of Alexandria. She worked at Misr International Films and has collaborated with award-winning directors such as Saad...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Megan Park – “The Fallout”
Megan Park is an actress, writer, and director. She starred in seven seasons on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” She is the recipient of the Toronto International Film Festival’s...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Sonia Kennebeck – “United States vs. Reality Winner”
Sonia Kennebeck is a Malaysian-born, New York City-based independent filmmaker and investigative journalist with 17 years of directing and producing experience. Her most recent documentary thriller,...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Mei Makino – “Inbetween Girl”
For three years, Mei Makino taught filmmaking to youth in the Austin area, inspiring her to tell honest stories about kids and teens. She’s written and directed short films that have played at The...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Mallory Everton – “Recovery”
Mallory Everton is best known for being one of the original writer-actors on the sketch comedy show “Studio C” and for her role in the Purple Mattress Raw Egg Test commercial. She also...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Ursula Macfarlane – “The Lost Sons”
Emmy and BAFTA-nominated director Ursula Macfarlane is known for making films which combine the epic with the intimate, often focusing on marginalized communities or victims of trauma. Her feature...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Mary Wharton – “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free”
Mary Wharton has dedicated her career to making documentaries about music. Her work includes “Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Lissette Feliciano – “Women is Losers”
Lissette Feliciano is a writer, director, producer, and a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts. She is a Tribeca Film Institute AT&T Untold Stories grant recipient, was named as one of Shoot...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Emily Cohen Ibáñez – “Fruits of Labor”
Emily Cohen Ibañez is a Latinx Colombian-American filmmaker who earned her doctorate in Anthropology with a certificate in Culture and Media at New York University. Her film work pairs lyricism with...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Mari Walker – “See You Then”
Mari Walker is an award-winning director, writer, and editor. Films she has worked on have been screened at numerous film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Frameline, and Outfest. Walker’s...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Leah Purcell – “The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson”
Leah Purcell is a proud Goa-Gungarri-Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland, Australia. She is an internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, director, novelist, actor, cultural icon, and...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Danielle Kummer & Lucy Harvey – “Alien On Stage”
Danielle Kummer is a director, producer, and editor from London who studied film and media at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Producer and director Lucy Harvey spent 17 years as a stylist...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Alba Sotorra Clua – “The Return: Life After ISIS”
Alba Sotorra Clua has worked in Syria, Afghanistan, Korea, Bosnia, Cuba, the US, Guatemala, England, Iran, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, and Qatar, and has lived long periods in the Middle East. Her films...
Jasmila Žbanić on Revisiting the Srebrenica Massacre in International Feature Oscar Nominee “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Jasmila Žbanić is a Bosnian writer, director, and producer. Her feature debut “Grbavica” won the 2006 Berlinale Golden Bear. She followed it up with 2010’s “On the...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Emily & Sarah Kunstler – “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America”
Sisters Emily and Sarah Kunstler are the founders of Off Center Media, a documentary production company dedicated to racial justice and social change. Shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Hannaleena Hauru – “Fucking with Nobody”
Hannaleena Hauru is a Finnish screenwriter and director. Her debut feature, “Thick Lashes of Lauri Mäntyvaara” (2016), was developed at Torino Film Lab and Cannes Cinéfondation...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Paola Calvo – “Luchadoras”
Paola Calvo is a Venezuelan director and cinematographer. In 2012, Calvo directed “A Tale of two Islands,” a two-channel video installation that was shown at Berlinale Forum Expanded. Wanting to...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Andrea Nevins – “Hysterical”
Andrea Blaugrund Nevins is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning director, producer, and writer. Her credits include “Still Kicking,” “The Other F Word,” “Play It...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Stacey Gregg – “Here Before”
Stacey Gregg is a Belfast and London based writer, director, and performer working across film, TV, and theater. She is currently developing several original television drama series including...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Yngvild Sve Flikke – “Ninjababy”
Yngvild Sve Flikke wrote and directed dramas and documentaries for the Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) for 17 years before making her feature film debut with “Women in Oversized Men’s...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Caroline Catz – “Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes”
A British actor who has worked extensively in television, theater, film, and radio, Caroline Catz is also an accomplished film director and writer. Catz’s films include “A Message to the...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Natalie Morales – “Language Lessons”
Natalie Morales is an actor, director, writer, and activist. “Dead to Me,” “Battle of the Sexes,” and “Abby’s” are among her on-screen credits. Her directing...
Kate Taverna on Exploring the Aftermath of the Agent Orange Catastrophe in “The People vs. Agent Orange”
Kate Taverna has edited more than 50 films over her career, including “Asylum” and “Killing in the Name,” which were Academy Award nominees in the Best Short Documentary...
Shahrbanoo Sadat Reflects on Showing a Different Side of Afghanistan in “The Orphanage”
Interview by Gabriela Rico Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan writer and director based in Kabul. Her first feature film, “Wolf and Sheep,” was developed with the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence in...
Joana Hadjithomas Talks “Memory Box,” Her Berlinale Drama About Three Generations of Women
Joana Hadjithomas is an artist and filmmaker. She and collaborator Khalil Joreige have directed award-winning films such as “The Lebanese Rocket Society,” “A Perfect Day,” and...
Shatara Michelle Ford on Exploring How America “Consistently Fails Black Women” in #MeToo Drama “Test Pattern”
Shatara Michelle Ford is a Black American filmmaker born in rural Arkansas and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Their work explores class, power, womanhood, identity, memory, perception, and race. Her...
Angela Washko Shines a Spotlight on a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Alum in Slamdance Doc “Workhorse Queen”
A recent recipient of the Creative Capital Award, Impact Award at Indiecade, and the Franklin Furnace Performance Fund, Angela Washko’s art practice has been highlighted in The New Yorker, Frieze...
Svetlana Cvetko on Painting a Different Picture of LA in “Show Me What You Got”
Svetlana Cvetko is renowned for her cinematography work on a list of critically acclaimed documentaries, including Oscar winner “Inside Job,” Oscar-nominated “Facing Fear,”...
Cathy Yan Reflects on Her “Prescient” Debut Film “Dead Pigs,” and the Evolution of the Film Industry
Cathy Yan’s debut film, “Dead Pigs,” premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where it won a Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting, and garnered numerous...
Oscars 2021 International Feature Contenders: Meet Kaouther Ben Hania – “The Man Who Sold His Skin”
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s films have screened at prestigious festivals including Cannes, Locarno, IDFA, and Hot Docs. Her film “Beauty and the Dogs” premiered in the...
Oscars 2021 International Feature Contenders: Meet Barbara Paz – “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die”
Barbara Paz is an award-winning Brazilian actress, producer, and director. In her acting career she has performed in over 25 plays. She is also a popular television star under permanent contract to...
Oscars 2021 International Feature Contenders: Meet Julie Schroell – “River Tales”
Julie Schroell is a filmmaker and audiovisual artist living in Berlin. She started her career by directing a series of commissioned films, such as “The Farmer’s Blues” (2011), in...