Member Screening: January 2019

Join us for this month’s Member Screening showcasing the documentary Take My Nose…Please! by Director/Producer Joan Kron and the documentary short Empowered Dames by Producer/Director Claudine Marrotte . The filmmakers will be available for a Q&A immediately following the screening.

The screening series provides members with the opportunity to show their work in a theatrical setting. Screenings take place at Anthology Film Archives, followed by networking at a nearby bar.

Take My Nose…Please!
Joan Kron (Director/Producer)
Andrea Miller (Producer)
Brian David Cange (Producer)
Judy Twersky (Publicist)
100 mins, 2017, Documentary

A seriously funny and wickedly subversive look at the role of comedy in exposing the pressures on women to be attractive and society’s ambivalence toward cosmetic surgery. The film follows Emily Askin, an improv performer in Pittsburgh, and Jackie Hoffman, an award-winning comic actress known for her “funny face,” as they contemplate the possible impact of surgery on their careers, relationships and self-regard. Interwoven with their profoundly moving stories are those of comedy icons, from Fanny Brice to Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and others, who have spoken honestly about their surgical makeovers, while sisters in drama have remained steadfastly silent.

Photo Credit: Erika Larsen

Joan Kron, 90, is a prize-winning journalist. Take My Nose…Please! is her first film. It premiered last year and — defying all odds — won awards at two major festivals. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Kron started her career in 1949 as a costume designer at NBC-TV. Reinventing herself in the ‘60s, she made history producing avant-garde art exhibits and cultural events, as well as multiples by artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana. At age 41, with no training in journalism, she began writing style articles, moving swiftly from New York Magazine to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Allure, where she invented the plastic surgery beat and earned awards for 25 years. In her spare time, Kron authored three books and co-authored a fourth — the 1978 design bible, High-Tech, which popularized the obscure term.  Anthology Film Archives, the venue for the NYWIFT Member Screenings, is especially sentimental, says Kron. “In 1966, when I chaired Philadelphia’s Y Arts Council, Jonas Mekas, founder of Anthology Film Archives, helped me present  a program of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground along with some underground films. The Y’s board found the event so shocking, I was impeached.” Kron is currently developing her second documentary.

Andrea Miller is the principal of Folium Films, based in New York City. Formerly a television executive with more than thirty of years of experience in the news and entertainment business, she enjoys producing political and historical subject matter that defy generic treatment and marketing.  Recent films include Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People, directed by Oren Rudavsky; Take My Nose … Please!, directed by Joan Kron; and, Particle Fever, directed by Mark Levinson. She was consulting producer on The Price of Everything, Thank You for Your Service, and Letters from Baghdad and served as Executive Producer on Colliding Dreams and The New Public. She also produced the prize-winning the feature Dark Matter with Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, and Chinese actor Liu Ye. She is currently working on a limited series about the Strike of 20,000.   

Brian David Cange is an award-winning producer who’s work includes: Roxanne, Roxanne, sold to Netflix and starring Mahershala Ali & Nia Long for director Michael Larnel and Marjorie Prime, starring Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins, & Geena Davis; –both 2017 Sundance Film Festival Selections; Take My Nose … Please!, released by The Orchard won the Audience Award at the Miami Film Festival in 2017; Equity, a 2016 Sundance Film Festival Selection; and the highly acclaimed Mad Hot Ballroom, which earned eight wins and nine nominations at key critics award competitions in 2005/2006. Cange is a member of the Producers Guild of America and is represented by Agency for the Performing Arts (APA).

Judy Twersky has over 35 years of experience publicizing documentaries, TV shows and personalities.  She has worked on a variety of projects for HBO, Cinemax, A&E and Showtime. In addition to Joan Kron, some of her clients include Sheila Nevins, Paul Shaffer and Chris Whipple. 

Empowered Dames
Claudine Marrotte (Director/Producer)
10 min, 2018, Documentary

Empowered Dames is a short documentary that brings a positive message of women successfully working in the film and television business.

Claudine Marrotte‘s intention is to utilize her creative and tactical skills to tell visual stories. Empowering actors through inspired direction keeps them present in the moment and gets them out of their heads and into their performance. As an active member of the Directors Guild of American (DGA) and Producers Guild of America (PGA) she contributes her time and talents to the Women’s Impact Network Committee and chairs the Green Committee East. Recent directing projects include Empowered Dames and featurettes on how the beloved Sesame Street and Madam Secretary are implementing sustainable tactics to ensure their sets are green.

Pricing

$7 for NYWIFT Members
$9 for Students, Seniors, Members of Women Make Movies, IFP, AAWIC, ImageNation, DCTV, and Center for Communications
$11 for Nonmembers

Register by prepayment online

Special thanks to Carlina Rivera and New York City District 2 for discretionary funding for the NYWIFT Member Screening Series.