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

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: 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: 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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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

LIONSGATE SHOP

Bite-sized blog post: Dee Rees

DEE REES began studying business and then went on to get her MFA from NYU. She interned for Spike Lee before making her first feature film Pariah (2011) based on the short she directed of the same name. The film premiered at Sundance and she then went on to write and direct the Emmy award winning HBO film Bessie (2015).

She is currently developing a television series with Shonda Rhimes.

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Bite-sized blog post: Allison Anders

ALLISON ANDERS made her first feature film Border Radio (1987) while still a student at UCLA, shooting with classmates Kurt Voss and Dean Lent and reaching out to punk music icons to act in the film which is now a Criterion classic. She has gone on to direct features as well as for television.

For The Miramar Summit in the spring of 2000, well before the issue of the lack of women directors became mainstream news, Anders gathered women in the film industry to discuss the challenges facing female filmmakers in Hollywood.

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

CRITERION

Bite-sized blog post: Leslie Harris

LESLIE HARRIS was the first African American woman to win a Special Jury Prize at Sundance with her debut feature film Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992). She got distribution for the film with Miramax for the self-financed, self-produced feature which she edited on her own in her apartment.

Harris teaches at New York University and is fundraising for her feature I Love Cinema.

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Where to watch her films:

VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Nicole Holofcener

At the beginning of her studies at Columbia’s MFA program NICOLE HOLOFCENER considered herself a screenwriter but soon realized she liked directing her own work.

After graduating she directed her first feature, a Sundance Film Festival favorite Walking and Talking (1996) and her character driven comedies have led to comparisons with Woody Allen but she has a style all her own.

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Bite-sized blog post: Lena Dunham

LENA DUNHAM began her career making short films that got tons of hits on Youtube.

Her parents told her that they would pay for her to go to graduate school or fund a feature film. Dunham chose to make her first feature Tiny Furniture (2010).

She went on to utilize social media to gain notoriety and create the hit series Girls for HBO.

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