Terry’s Picks: #SummerHours Series, Debra Granik, Darya Zhuk
#SummerHours Series: The NYWIFT #SummerHours blog series by members Mellini Kantayya and Kathryn O’Kane is back again this year with recommendations for your summer reading and watchlist. So far Kathryn has shared her thoughts on past NYWIFT Muse honoree Whoopi Goldberg’s latest book, and Mellini has created a list of bingewatch-worthy comedy picks. Debra Granik:...
READ MOREMeet the New Board Members: Yvonne Russo
NYWIFT is governed by an 18 member Board of Directors, elected by the membership in late Spring. This diverse, accomplished group of women are at the top of their game in TV, film and digital media. We get to know producer Yvonne Russo, one of the latest additions to our leadership team.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Sarah Paulson, Lisa Nishimura, Gina Duncan
Sarah Paulson: Ocean’s 8 reboot star Sarah Paulson debunks the theory that women can’t work well together. (Of course they can!) Lisa Nishimura: If you binged Making a Murderer, Wild Wild Country or any other recent Netflix documentary series, you have Lisa Nishimura to thank. Gina Duncan: Indiewire profiles Gina Duncan, associate vice president of...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: ReFrame Stamp, Women Directors, Binge Watch
ReFrame Stamp: The ReFrame organization has created the ReFrame Stamp in partnership with IMDBpro, a badge of honor for film and TV projects that hire women in at least half of eight key production positions – writer, director, producer, lead actor, co-lead, speaking parts, department heads and crew – with double points for women of...
READ MOREAfriAmerican Immigrant Screening: Local Stories, Global Themes
In Astoria’s historic Kaufman Studios, filmmakers from the African diaspora shared local stories that reverberated deep into universal themes and questions as part of New York Women in Film & Television’s Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories screening on May 31, 2018. Featured in the fourth season of this NYWIFT series highlighting narrative and documentary films about the New York immigrant experience, these short films tackled issues ranging from the #MeToo movement, to President Trump’s travel ban, to the immigrant experience, to what it means to be American, among many more.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: NYWIFT Grants, Abby Wambach, Follow Through
NYWIFT Grants: Applications for the NYWIFT Fund for Women Filmmakers are open now through June 22nd. The funds are: the Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant, In-Kind Post-Production Grants, the Nancy Malone Marketing and Promotion Grant, and the Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant. Abby Wambach: Take a few minutes to listen to or read soccer star...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Blockchain Technology, The Tale, Barbican Program
Blockchain Technology: The industry is abuzz with excitement – and questions – about Blockchain technology, so NYWIFT is holding a panel this Thursday to discuss its potential power for filmmakers. Member Heidi Philipsen also recently wrote a guest post for Women and Hollywood exploring the technology’s possible impact on indie filmmaking. The Tale: We are...
READ MOREThe Women’s Film Preservation Fund Crosses the Atlantic with 1970s Classics of Feminist Filmmaking
A year ago, an email arrived in our Women’s Film Preservation Fund mailbox from Tamara Anderson, Cinema Curator at the Barbican Centre in London, who had discovered our 2015 Carte-blanche series at MoMA, Women Writing the Language of Cinema. Would we curate a smaller series, focusing just on Second Wave Feminist films, for their multi-arts celebration Art of Change? What has resulted, Artists and Activists: Second Wave Feminist Filmmakers, will screen as a series over Saturday and Sunday, June 2-3 at the Barbican.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: NYC Women, Easy Promises, Decent Odds
NYC Women: The new website women.nyc was designed by a team of women, for women, to help them navigate parenthood, afford living in NYC and ask for a raise. Easy Promises: Dr. Martha Lauzen discusses why while promises of inclusion for women at film festivals is easy, actual change is hard. Decent Odds: A breakthrough...
READ MOREExploring Family and the Individual Search for Self
NYWIFT WFPF Co-Chair Kirsten Larvick previews the eighth and final installment of the From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film series, co-presented with UnionDocs. Two documentaries, Joe and Maxi and Anything You Want to Be, explore the nature of womanhood and identity within the contexts of family and society at large.
READ MOREReport from Tribeca: Isabella Olaguera on AD’ing, Celeb Encounters and Breaking into the Biz at 14
New Jersey-based assistant director Isabella Olaguera has worked professionally on over 50 feature films, television shows and commercials since 2010 – including an Oscar-nominated short. She has every right to brag, but she’s been keeping a big secret: she’s only 20 years old! She may very well be the youngest member of New York Women in Film & Television. Isabella discusses her work as the 2nd AD on the indie feature film All These Small Moments, a coming-of-age tale shot entirely in NYC, which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this month.
READ MOREThree unique and historic approaches to exploring gender on film
In their seventh program in the series From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film, the Women’s Film Preservation Fund and UnionDocs present three significant films of the 1970s which consider ideas around gender in various contexts. WFPF Co-Chair Kirsten Larvick offers a sneak preview.
READ MORECamerawoman Angela Murray Gibson Films Herself into History, 1921-1925: Marsha Gordon and Buckey Grimm
Angela Murray Gibson, a silent era filmmaker receives due attention at Orphan Film Symposium’s line-up this April 11th – 14th, 2018 at the Museum of Moving Image. That Ice Ticket (1921), a recent NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund and Kino Lorber preservation, will screen on April 13th as part of the presentation, Camerawoman Angela Murray Gibson Films Herself into History, 1921-1925. Here, its presenters Marsha Gordon and Buckey Grimm offer some insights into this distinguishing filmmaker and her broader mark on American cinema.
READ MORETrailblazing Through the Decades: Maleni Chaitoo (2010s)
NYWIFT member Maleni Chaitoo is an actress and a producer. She is known for her appearance in the “New York, I Love You” episode of Master of None and her role as Kayla on the web series Don’t Shoot the Messenger, on which she is also an executive producer.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: S.W.A.N. Day, Lena Waithe, Chloë Sevigny
S.W.A.N. Day: Join NYWIFT for our annual screening, Q&A and reception this Saturday in honor of Support Women Artists Now (S.W.A.N Day), co-presented with our friends at SAG-AFTRA, the School of Visual Arts Film Department, FF2 Media, ImageNation Cinema Foundation, Women in the Arts & Media Coalition (WAMC), African-American Women in Cinema (AAWIC), Women Make...
READ MORETrailblazing through the Decades: Gina Prince-Bythewood (2000s)
In 2000, writer, director, and past NYWIFT Writers Lab mentor Gina Prince-Bythewood blazed a trail with her film Love and Basketball. Not only was the film a critical and commercial success, it won the Humanitas Prize and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
READ MORETrailblazing through the Decades: Cheryl Dunye (1990s)
Twenty years ago a young artist set out to make a documentary about women like herself: black queer filmmakers. She found nothing but homophobia and omission, and then… inspiration. The resulting film The Watermelon Woman marked Cheryl Dunye’s 1996 debut – a hybrid of autobiography, documentary, and comedy. It defies categorization and was the first feature film directed by an African American lesbian.
READ MORETrailblazing Through the Decades: Jessie Maple (1980s)
Jessie Maple is the first black woman to join the union of International Photographers of Motion Picture & Television (IATSE) in New York. Her book, How to Become a Union Camerawoman , is an instructional guide illustrating the obstacles that she endured to get into the union. It details the court case she initiated to fight discrimination after she became a member.
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