Comedy Makers: Join us at Carolines on Broadway this Thursday, November 3rd for our Made in NY: Comedy Makers panel. Now in it’s 4th year, our annual Women in Comedy panel has been named one of the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment’s 50 for 50 programs, highlighting the best of the best of the NY entertainment industry for MOME’s 50th anniversary.
Women Pioneers: Please consider supporting Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers DVD collection. Presented in association with the Library of Congress, Pioneers will be the largest commercially-released video collection of films by women directors (including some preserved by our Women’s Film Preservation Fund), and will focus on American films made between 1910 and 1929—a crucial chapter of our cultural history. Here’s a great interview with preservationist Bret Wood.
DOC NYC: I was thrilled to see how many NYWIFT members have films screening at DOC NYC! Be sure to check out these great titles when you attend the festival next week.
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Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Aurora Caruso
Welcome to NYWIFT, Aurora Caruso! Italian-Belgian artist and former journalist and production assistant Aurora Caruso works with video to explore the relationship between reality and art. After several years in the Italian film industry, she is currently studying Communication and Art & Design at John Cabot University, an American university in Rome. Driven by her passion for cinema, she moved to New York to continue her studies at The New School and has just returned to Italy after a semester there, with the goal of finding work in the United States. She aims to become a director, and her work is shaped by innovation, curiosity, and critical thinking.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Carol Welter
Welcome to NYWIFT, Carol Welter! Carol grew up in the United Kingdom, steeped in classical theatre, before crossing the Atlantic in 1977 and making the United States her home. Trained on the English stage from girlhood, she spent years acting and directing before discovering that writing was her true creative playground. Through Masters-level workshops and decades of artistic exploration, she turned her talents toward stage plays, screenplays, and poetry—crafting stories that blend imagination, humor, and heart. A woman who has worn more hats than a Shakespeare festival costume rack, Carol has directed, designed, and shaped productions from the ground up. Now a spirited senior storyteller, she writes across continents and galaxies, drawn to tales of transformation, unlikely heroes, and tender love stories. In our interview, Carol reflects on her journey from the stage to the page, the themes that inspire her work, and the new projects she’s most excited to share.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Maria Giese
Welcome to NYWIFT, Maria Giese! Maria Giese is an American film director, screenwriter, and longtime advocate for equity for women directors in Hollywood. She wrote and directed the feature films When Saturday Comes (starring Sean Bean) and Hunger (based on the classic Knut Hamsun novel). A member of the Directors Guild of America for over 25 years, Giese is widely recognized for her role in initiating the 2014 ACLU and 2015 EEOC investigations into systemic discrimination against women directors. Her work is featured in the documentaries This Changes Everything (2018 Netflix), Half the Picture (2018 Amazon), and the Sundance hit Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2022 Kino-Lorber). Maria spoke to us about her career trajectory, her turn to advocacy, and what she sees for the industry moving forward.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Spotlight: Shahnaz Mahmud
When award-winning journalist Shahnaz Mahmud set out to write and direct her first narrative film, she landed on a deeply personal story inspired by her parents’ own arranged marriage. And when it came time to a select an editor to collaborate with, she turned to the NYWIFT membership directory, where she found veteran editor Susan B. Ades – the perfect match for her project. Members Shahnaz and Susan sat down with us to discuss their adventures (and misadventures!) making the short film The Blossom, how their partnership brought new elements of the story to light, and the unique path to bringing such an intimate tale to the screen.
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