THE 2ND SEX &amp; THE 7TH ART: WOMEN DIRECTORS IN FILM

Bite-sized blog post: Nancy Meyers

NANCY MEYERS’ first job in Hollywood was as a production assistant on The Price is Right. She then started working as a story editor and wrote her first screenplay Private Benjamin (1980), starring Goldie Hawn.

The first film she wrote and directed was The Parent Trap (1998) – a remake of the 1961 film and she has gone on to make several Hollywood box office hits.

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

Bite-sized blog post: Sofia Coppola

SOFIA COPPOLA began her career as a still photographer and actress in her famous father’s films, playing an infant in a christening scene in The Godfather (1972). She learned all about making movies first hand by growing up in the industry and after directing a few shorts made her first feature film The Virgin Suicides (1999) which premiered at Sundance.

She was the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director with her film Lost in Translation (2003) for which she won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

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Bite-sized blog post: Jan Eliasberg

After receiving an MFA from Yale’s drama program and directing for prominent theatre companies JAN ELIASBERG was well-equipped to direct character driven television shows with an emphasis on performance and started out directing for shows such as Cagney & Lacey and LA Law after attending the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.

She was then chosen by Michael Mann to be the first woman to direct an episode of the action packed TV series Miami Vice which allowed her to segue into directing action. She ended up directing three episodes for the series and then used those action skills to direct her feature film Past Midnight (1991).

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Where to watch her films:

VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Claudia Weill

Stanley Kubrick praised CLAUDIA WEILL’s first feature film Girlfriends (1978) as one of the most interesting American films of its time, comparable in quality to European films (high praise from Kubrick).

Weill most recently directed for the popular television series Girls.

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Bite-sized blog post: Gillian Robespierre

GILLIAN ROBESPIERRE co-wrote and directed the Independent Spirit Award nominated film Obvious Child (2014) based on the short she created of the same name after graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

The film was funded in part by a crowdfunding via a Kickstarter campaign and premiered at South by Southwest.

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Where to watch her films:

VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Gurinder Chadha

GURINDER CHADA was a BBC news reporter who made award winning documentaries in England before her fiction feature film Bend It Like Beckham (2002) became a US (and international) success.

She continues to direct for the screen and has recently turned Bend It Like Beckham into a stage musical.

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Bite-sized blog post: Mimi Leder

MIMI LEDER was the first female graduate of the AFI program in 1973.

She directed the hit film Deep Impact (1998) and has a long list of credits despite having opportunities curtailed because of her gender.

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Bite-sized blog post: Dawn Porter

DAWN PORTER is a documentary filmmaker whose directorial debut Gideon’s Army (2013) premiered on HBO. The film about public defenders allowed her to use her knowledge as an attorney as well as skills as a filmmaker.

She runs the production company Trilogy Films and her second film Spies of Mississippi (2014) was part of the PBS Independent Lens Series.

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Where to watch her films:

VIMEO

PBS

Bite-sized blog post: Shirley Clarke

SHIRLEY CLARKE began her career as a dancer and choreographer and used those skills as a filmmaker.

Her first feature The Connection (1962) was based on the play by Jack Gelber about heroine addicted jazz musicians, shot in the cinematic realism style of the 1960s Clarke was one of the directors breaking ground in a new style of cinema.

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Where to watch her films:

FANDOR