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

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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PBS

Bite-sized blog post: Leah Meyerhoff

When in pre-production for her first feature film I Believe in Unicorns (2014) LEAH MEYERHOFF gathered a group of female filmmakers for a dinner party to talk about their experiences. That one night snowballed into an organization known as Film Fatales with chapters all over the country and expanding internationally.

Meyerhoff went to Berkeley High School in Northern California and got her MFA at NYU.

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ON HER WEBSITE

Bite-sized blog post: Sarah Polley

SARAH POLLEY is a Canadian actress who made a career in independent film before directing a few shorts and attending the Canadian Film Centre’s directing program in 2001.

Her feature film directorial debut Away From Her (2006) garnered her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her most recent film was a documentary hybrid about her family Stories We Tell (2012).

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LIONSGATE SHOP

Bite-sized blog post: Nina Menkes

NINA MENKES studied film at UCLA where she first began collaborating with her sister Tinka Menkes who served as her actress and muse on several projects. As a director she has worked in all areas of production, writing, editing, working camera and sound on her projects.

Menkes’ films have been known to challenge the viewer (especially the male viewer) nonetheless films including Phantom Love (2007), The Bloody Child (1996) and Queen of Diamonds (1991) have found a home at mainstream festivals such as Sundance because of their boldness and craft. Sundance also embraced her New Media project The Crazy Female Bloody Center (2000).

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Bite-sized blog post: Amy Seimetz

AMY SEIMETZ began her career producing and directing shorts. Her first feature film Sun Don’t Shine (2008) was simultaneously released theatrically and digitally by Factory 25.

She has gone on to direct for the television series The Girlfriend Experience based on the film by Stephen Soderbergh.

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Bite-sized blog post: Maya Deren

MAYA DEREN began her career studying literature and as a photographer and then went on to make her mark as an experimental filmmaker with films such as Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).

Deren was the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim grant in 1947. She died in 1961 at the age of 44 of a brain hemhorrage.

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Bite-sized blog post: Penny Marshall

Penny Marshall began her career as an actress who became famous for her role as Laverne on Laverne & Shirley. She directed a couple of episodes of the long-running sitcom and then went on to direct the feature film Big (1988), the first film directed by a woman to gross over $100 million.

Her film Awakenings (1990) was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy, however she was not nominated for Best Director for the film.

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Bite-sized blog post: Barbara Kopple

BARBARA KOPPLE began her career working with the Maysles brothers and has gone on to win two Academy Awards for her documentaries, the first for Harlan County, USA (1976) and for American Dream (1990).

She has directed numerous documentaries and for the Emmy award winning television series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

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