Academy Award-winning filmmaker Deborah Shaffer began making social issue documentaries as a member of the Newsreel collective in the ‘70s. She co-founded Pandora Films, one of the first woman’s film companies. Her directing credits include “Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements,” which won the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary in 1985, “The Wobblies,” “Fire From the Mountain,” “Dance of Hope,” “From the Ashes: 10 Artists,” and “From the Ashes: Epilogue.” She’s directed several Emmy Award-winning public television programs on women and the arts. Shaffer has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award by the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

“Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack” hits virtual theaters November 13. The film is co-directed by Rachel Reichman.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

DS: Octogenarian Audrey Flack is a trailblazer in the history of art in America. Feminist, rebel, mother, and teacher, Flack’s controversial career evolved from ’50s abstract expressionism to ’70s photorealism. “Queen of Hearts” follows Flack as she returns to painting on canvas for the first time in four decades, and reveals her long-term struggles as the mother of an autistic child.

Provocateur and inspiration, Flack has something genuine to communicate to the world in a moving portrait of an artist who is still searching.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

DS: My initial attraction was to Audrey Flack herself, especially her dynamism and story-telling ability. As I’ve been making independent documentaries for 50 years now, I was also particularly interested in the challenges facing an older artist.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

DS: I would never want to be prescriptive in directing an audience what to think about! I want them to surrender and experience the film the way they would any good narrative story — to be carried along by it, to laugh and cry, and hopefully yes, in the end, feel they have been enriched by meeting Audrey Flack.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

DS: There were two big challenges. The first was getting the film funded.

The second was to find a structure in the editing room. I worked with my co-director/editor Rachel Reichman over a period of a year trying to figure out how to tell Audrey’s personal story in a dynamic way, and also to integrate the cultural, social, and art history of the times she was living through. It was extremely challenging. At least four times we thought we had nailed it, and when we invited film colleagues in for feedback we were very deflated by their responses. It was a question of balance, and getting things in the right sequence. Laying it out chronologically was just really boring.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made. 

DS: It was nearly impossible to get this film funded. In the end, we had grants for about 25 percent of the budget, one for $25,000 and the rest averaging $5,000. We had an executive producer who contributed 10 percent. The remaining 50 percent of the cash budget needed for the project came from my personal savings. I have never done that before for a film, and I won’t do it again, which leaves me to wonder how I will fund the next one.

Also, we started out with a young cinematographer who was just finishing up at NYU film school, Elizabeth Nichols, who turned out to be amazing. And I still owe deferred salaries, mostly to my co-director/editor who was on the project for two years, off and on, which accounts for the remaining 15 percent.

Although I’ve contributed to many crowd-sourced films, I was personally reluctant to go that route. They are also a lot of work.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

DS: I tumbled into filmmaking in the early ’70s through my activism in the anti-Vietnam War Movement and the Women’s Movement. I joined a radical filmmaking group, Newsreel, just at the time when women were demanding access to training, equipment, film stock, and decision-making.

I discovered that I was much more comfortable behind the projector — and later the camera — than out front making speeches or leading meetings. I saw first-hand the power of film to spark discussion, change people’s minds, and provoke action, and I discovered a love of film craft.

In Newsreel we did all of the work collaboratively, which had its downside, but meant that we all learned to do each job, including directing. I eventually gravitated toward editing, which I ended up doing professionally to support myself while directing independent films for 20 years.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

DS: The advice I always give aspiring filmmakers is not to take “no” for an answer. You have to be persistent, find a way around barriers, and never give up. Try to frame questions in such a way that you can keep your toe in the door. I don’t know if someone gave me that advice, or I made it up myself.

In addition, you have to develop a really thick skin, and be able to take a lot of rejection – from funders, subjects, festivals, etc. You cannot take it personally.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

DS: There are so many women directors I admire. Jane Campion for one, especially “The Piano” and “Top of the Lake.” Ava DuVernay, for her features, documentaries, and television work. Julia Reichert, Barbara Kopple, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Liz Garbus, Garrett Bradley. I’m sure I’m leaving lots of people out!

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

DS: I relocated to upstate New York from Brooklyn early in the pandemic because my sister was diagnosed with a terminal cancer in early March. I was hugely involved in her care until she passed away in mid-September.

Simultaneously I’ve been preparing “Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack” for its upcoming theatrical release throughout the pandemic, participating in virtual festivals, including Zoom Q&A’s, securing distribution, finalizing music rights, correcting a few sound mix and on-line issues, and designing publicity materials. I’ve participated in dozens of professional Zoom webinars about virtual distribution, the changing nature of production, etc.

I’m looking forward to having a little bit of down time now to read, and consider my next move. I have many ideas for new films, but I’m figuring out how to get them funded and [made] while the pandemic is raging.

I have dearly missed the travel and live interactions with audiences I would have gotten from festivals. I fear it will be a long winter, but it seems that good news for an effective vaccine is coming soon.

W&H: Recent protests in the U.S. and abroad have highlighted racism and anti-Black police brutality. The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

DS: I have recently been re-visiting my own coming-of-age story in the social movements of the late ’60s and early ’70s and it has been a sobering experience. Looking back, and comparing then to now, while our society has made tremendous progress in 50 years in many areas, there is so much that hasn’t changed.

The U.S. was founded on the basis of structural racism, and we have a lot of work to do to confront and dismantle those deeply embedded structures. A good start at analyzing some of these issues as they pertain to documentary filmmaking in particular can be found on the International Documentary Association’s website.