Swim Team: Tune in or set your DVR for Swim Team’s PBS premiere on POV at 10 PM next Monday, October 2nd! The documentary was a recipient of NYWIFT Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant. Congratulations to director Lara Stolman! #SwimTeamPBS
Shonda Rhimes: The must-see TV mastermind launched a new website, Shondaland. As she notes in her welcome, it’s not a “lifestyle site”…but a site that “gives you life.”
Nancy Malone: NYWIFT is pleased to announce a generous bequest from our longtime supporter (and my dear friend) the late Nancy Malone, a television directing pioneer. Nancy’s generous gift will fund three NYWIFT programs to provide opportunities and acknowledgement for women in the business, a wonderful addition to our 40th anniversary year.
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Welcome to NYWIFT, Louisa Brown! Blogger Marchelle Thurman had the pleasure of interviewing Louisa Brown. She is a storyteller, connector, and unapologetic champion of underrepresented voices in film and media. At Urbanworld Film Festival, she builds bridges between artists, audiences, and cultural institutions, creating moments that matter. She’s a founding member of M.A.D.E., where she produces the award-winning MADE Talks series, celebrating Black creativity and bold ideas. Her own films, including Family Time and Mila and Mimi Too, have won Lionsgate recognition and festival accolades. In addition, she has collaborated on various projects, headed initiatives for commercial brands, and serves on the management team for musical artist Laila! Louisa brings heart, humor, and a global perspective to everything she does.
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Welcome to NYWIFT, Madeleine Rotzler! Madeleine Rotzler is an Emmy® Award-winning director and producer of documentaries and narrative feature films. Fiction films include the upcoming O Horizon and O.G., currently on HBO. Non-fiction films include HBO’s Emmy-nominated It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It, Emmy-winning Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus, and Oscar-shortlisted The Lottery. Her most recent film, O Horizon, was described as “bound to be one of the season's sweetest charmers.” The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2025 where it won the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema. O.G., Madeleine’s narrative feature debut, and It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It were both filmed inside a maximum-security prison in Indiana in collaboration with men incarcerated there. Most of the cast of O.G. were incarcerated. It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It marked the first time incarcerated directors were nominated for an Emmy. In our interview, Madeleine discussed her award-winning films and her perspective on the impact of filmmaking.
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