Journal from the Woodstock Film Festival: Daughter of a Lost Bird
NYWIFT member Fran Montagnino shares a taste of her experience at the 2021 Woodstock Film Festival, including the poignant screening of Daughter of a Lost Bird, winner of the NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking.
READ MORECrystal R. Emery: Exposing Racism in Healthcare as America’s Most Lethal Pandemic
What makes COVID-19 even deadlier? Racism in medicine. NYWIFT member Crystal R. Emery’s documentary The Deadliest Disease in America traces the history of racism in American health care from the brutal medical experimentation forced upon enslaved peoples to the modern-day inequity in fatality rates and access to treatment experienced by people of color during the pandemic.
READ MOREThe Dilemma of Desire Empowers Women through a Greater Understanding of Their Sexuality
Maria Finitzo's film "The Dilemma of Desire," a documentary about female sexual desire, was difficult to pitch and sell because, according to Finitzo, “People were afraid of it, they think it's about porn or are worried they're going to see people having sex." Instead, the film delves into the essential, surprising, and often sad truth about most women’s understanding of their own sexual desires and their own bodies.
READ MOREThe Mole Agent: Highlights from the NYWIFT Goes to the Oscars Q&A with Maite Alberdi, Marcela Santibañez, Julie Goldman
The team behind The Mole Agent, Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary, discusses its powerful impact, and how they created a film both so visually stunning and rich with character that The New York Times review believed the film to be partly dramatized. It wasn’t!
READ MORENYWIFT Women’s History Month Spotlight: Kelsey Marsh
NYWIFT Member Kelsey Marsh is a Line Producer at NowThis currently overseeing their Earth and Impact partnerships. She has six years experience in managing inspiring, entertaining, and educational productions for broadcast and digital platforms. Kelsey shares how her experience in the Peace Corps led her to a career combining media and service, her Women's History Month inspirations, and more.
READ MORENYWIFT Program Recap: Alison Klayman’s Flower Punk
"Flower Punk," Alison Klayman’s film recently released on The New Yorker documentary site, delights visually and aesthetically with the bonus of illuminating Japanese cultural traditions regarding the natural world. We recap our conversation with Alison following the NYWIFT screening of the film.
READ MOREAll In: The Fight for Democracy – A Conversation with Lisa Cortés (Part II)
The second part of Christina Kiely's two-part interview with All In: The Fight for Democracy co-director Lisa Cortés, conducted on Zoom in anticipation of her participation at the NYWIFT 2020 Creative Workforce Summit: Documentary Makers, Industry and Funders in Conversation next week.
READ MOREAll In: The Fight for Democracy – A Conversation with Lisa Cortés (Part I)
All In: The Fight for Democracy is the essential new documentary the LA Times called “an eloquent history lesson on voting rights.” Co-directed by Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus, the film tells the painful history of voter suppression in America as it traces the story of gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her 2018 run in Georgia. Oscar-nominated producer NYWIFT Member Lisa Cortés (Precious, The Apollo, Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion) joined NYWIFT Board Member Christina Kiely to discuss All In: The Fight for Democracy, why it matters so much right now, how they pulled it off during the pandemic, and why Stacey Abrams’s story needed to be the spine of the film – apart from the fact that we love her.
READ MORECynthia’s Picks: All In, WFPF Submissions, Production Resumes
All In: If you haven’t seen All In: The Fight for Democracy yet on Amazon, do it – it’s a must-see, especially now. Filmmakers Liz Garbus and NYWIFT member Lisa Cortes examine the history of voter suppression and the activists who fight for the rights of U.S. citizens. WFPF Submissions: The NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation...
READ MOREKavery Kaul’s Long Way from Home Explores Bias through the Eyes of High School Students
Hailed by historian Robin Kelley as “one of the most powerful and inspiring documentaries of our era,” NYWIFT member Kavery Kaul’s Long Way from Home is the moving and provocative story of three remarkable girls entering ninth grade at top schools steeped in bias towards race, class, and culture. Though the film was made nearly 15 years ago, the issues still resonate in today’s climate of racial injustice and civil unrest. Kavery sat down to discuss how she put together this incredible portrait and what – if anything – has changed in our culture in the years since.
READ MORERecap of Denise Ho: Becoming the Song Virtual Event with Sue Williams
Filmmaker Sue Williams has a love affair with the city of Hong Kong. So when a friend introduced her to the Cantopop superstar Denise Ho, she knew she had the subject of her next film. But, what happens when current events upend the planned story arch of your film at the end of production?
READ MOREOlympia Premieres Online July 9th
The feature length documentary, Olympia, celebrating the life and career of Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis, will have a national LIVE streaming premiere in North America on July 9th at 8pm ET, followed by a Q&A, with a special premiere screening in Greece and Europe at 1pm ET on July 10th and an exclusive ‘virtual cinema’ release beginning Friday, July 10th.
READ MORE“Call Your Mother” Panel: Top Takeaways
Leah Curney looks back on her favorite humorous - and heartfelt - moments from NYWIFT's "Call Your Mother" comedy panel.
READ MORETop Takeaways – NYWIFT Talks: Filmmakers and Activists discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, their life’s work, and hope for the future.
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, NYWIFT Talks recently brought together a vibrant panel of award-winning women filmmakers and activists dedicated to fighting systemic racism to discuss their work and the social justice revolution of today.
READ MOREDocumentary Storytelling with Sound Design – Top Takeaways
Sound design in the secret sauce that adds that magical third dimension to media projects. Well-designed audio is so seamless that it is often overlooked because it so beautifully integrates with the visuals. In our recent NYWIFT program, a panel of sound design experts explained how their craft can transform documentary storytelling.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Crystal R. Emery’s THE DEADLIEST DISEASE IN AMERICA Screens May 7th
Intended to reduce systemic negligence creating barriers of access to health care, Producer/ Director Crystal R. Emery will livestream her documentary film, The Deadliest Disease in America on Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 7PM ET on Streamyard, YouTube and Facebook Live – with a special film introduction by Broadcast Journalist Soledad O’Brien.
READ MORETop Takeaways: Preserving Your Mental Health During Challenging Times
As a director and producer, NYWIFT board member Kathryn O'Kane is a planner and she's used to solving problems. The biggest challenge she's finding during the COVID-19 crisis is that there’s not enough information to be able to plan. She attended the NYWIFT “Mental Health and Career Sustainability in the Doc World” panel because to learn how producers can come to terms with that and how to relax into the uncertainty of the moment when it goes against our nature. She offers her top takeaways.
READ MOREDeath Row Stories Season 5 Features Work of Six NYWIFT Members
Season 5 of Death Row Stories premieres this Sunday, April 19 at 8 PM ET/CT on HLN. Told by current and former death row inmates, each episode of Death Row Stories seeks to unravel the truth behind a different capital murder case and poses tough questions about the U.S. capital punishment system. This season, the series features work by six NYWIFT members.
READ MORE
