What is your name, age, and location?
My name is Alexandra Mann. I’m in my 20s. I split my time between Munich and New York.
What is your profession?
Filmmaker.
What did you study in school and what degrees do you have?
I received a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence.
What was your first job?
My first job was at 11 years old when I performed in a Eugene O’Neill play at the Actors Studio in New York.
Who or what inspired you to break into your current line of work?
I was first exposed to filmmaking as a young child, when I visited my brother, actor Gabriel Mann (Bourne Identity, Don’t Come Knocking, Life of David Gale, et al), on movie sets.
Throughout my life, however, I have had an immense desire to understand the human condition. As a teenager, I spent time with Buddhist monks and nuns at a monastery in Taiwan; with Hurricane victims in St. Thomas; and with the Hopi Indians in Arizona, rebuilding their homes. At Brown University, I studied Artificial Intelligence to gain a deeper understanding of the human brain. After college, I worked at an orphanage in Brazil for children who were victims of incest, rape, gangs, and attempted murder.
As a filmmaker, I draw from these experiences and from my Native American roots with a keen interest on highlighting the plight of those who are underrepresented as decision makers in society; on preserving the environment; and on helping those who lack the resources and support to live fulfilling healthy lives.
Name/describe what has been your most rewarding project so far?
I am currently working on a documentary about women and their underrepresentation in business and politics in America. A lot of the world is focused right now on the destitution of people in developing countries, but I feel it is of equal importance to look at how we are treating our people at home, especially our women and minorities. We still have a long way to go before America is a place where all people have equal access to resources and opportunities.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has helped your career?
Unfortunately, it’s difficult for me to answer how being a woman has helped my career. There are so few advantages to being a female in an industry that is overwhelmingly controlled and influenced by the opposite gender.
What has been helpful is access to women’s networks, such as 85 Broads and Women in Film. Through these groups, I’ve been able to connect with like-minded women, learn about initiatives specifically geared toward empowering female filmmakers, and know that I am part of a community that I can reach out to for support and advice.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has hindered your career?
I find that as a female filmmaker I sometimes have to work harder to be taken seriously, especially when working abroad. I recently filmed a project in India where the local production coordinator had difficulty conducting business with me as a woman. Instead, he looked to my male assistant for direction. It required extra effort on my end to make him fully understand that I was the one running the show.
Do you want to have children? Why or why not?
I definitely hope to have children one day. I look forward to being a mother and view having a family as an enriching life experience. I do not, however, want to be forced to choose between work and family so I plan to wait to have children until I am more established in my career.
Who is your role model or mentor (alive or dead)?
To be honest, I haven’t really had a role model or mentor, which is not for the lack of wanting one. Of anyone, I look to my great grandmother who was a Cherokee concert pianist in Texas at a time when “a good Indian [was] a dead Indian” (General Sheridan, 1867), as a trailblazer and a source of motivation. But overall, I’ve had to carve a path on my own and trust that I can figure out how to get where I want to be.
I derive personal courage and perseverance, however, from watching inspiring vignettes in art and in life: from the acting performance of Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild; the awe-inspiring documentary Winged Migration; the heart-breaking performance of Brigitte Fossey in the French film Forbidden Games; to the beauty of Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor. These moments speak to a deep desire in me to connect. It is these moments that inspire me to make films that provoke empathy and if successful rouse others to do the same.
If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting out in your field, what would it be?
I think a lot of women can be plagued by insecurity and easily discouraged when they are starting out in the film industry, especially since there are so few female role models. My advice would be to trust in your own voice, believe that you have something of value to contribute, and know that you have all the resources within yourself to accomplish your goals.
Contact Info:
AlexandraMann [at] gmail [dot] com
– Interview by Elena Rossini
What is your name, age, and location?
Erica Ginsberg, 40, Washington DC Metropolitan Area.
What is your profession?
Executive Director, Docs In Progress, a nonprofit arts organization which helps emerging (and aspiring) documentary filmmakers find their voice and community.
What did you study in school and what degrees do you have?
I have a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University and an M.A. in Film & Video from American University.
What was your first job?
My first job of any kind was shelving books in my local public library when I was still in high school (in the days when Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steele were the top fiction picks for library checkouts). I also did some temp work but that didn’t last long because one boss told me to look for the credenza file and I didn’t have any clue what a credenza was and kept looking fruitlessly for a file for Mr. Credenza.
What I consider my first adult job was working as an Administrative Assistant in the Department of State office which provides foreign language interpreters to the President and other top U.S. officials. I started there as a summer intern after my freshman year of college and ended up staying more than 10 years.
Who or what inspired you to break into your current line of work?
I was always interested in art, even in high school, but I was also interested in international issues. After I had worked for a few years at the Department of State, I decided to revisit my interest in the arts by getting a master’s in film and finding a way to combine my two passions. I ended up producing a documentary about post-war life in former Yugoslavia. The process of making that documentary made me realize how lonely a field it could be without the support of friends, colleagues, and institutions. And that’s really where the idea for Docs In Progress originated.
Name/describe what has been your most rewarding project so far?
Docs In Progress itself is my most rewarding project. I quit a comfortable government job to run an arts nonprofit in one of the worst economies in recent history. But I have never regretted it. Just knowing that the work I do can help other people realize their dream of making a documentary, help a filmmaker get through a creative block, or introduce new audiences to documentary as both a form of expression and as a change-agent inspires me every day.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has helped your career?
I joined an organization while I was in graduate school in Washington DC called Women in Film and Video. Although the organization welcomes men as active members, I don’t know if I would have felt as comfortable getting deeply involved in the organization had I been a man. It was (and is!) an amazing organization for networking and professional development. Many of the people I have worked with and the inspirations I have gotten to do what I do today have come through connections made through that organization.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has hindered your career?
I can’t say it has ever hindered my career, but I remember one government internship experience in my 20s where I was asked to do all these ridiculous things for a bigwig including writing his son’s resume and manage forwarding his magazine subscriptions which had come to the office (including a certain men’s magazine). I know I never would have been asked to do that if I was a male intern.
Do you want to have children? Why or why not?
No. I love children but prefer other people’s children since there is a definite time limit. I don’t think I could balance motherhood with work. I do have a dog though and he’s enough to handle.
Who is your role model or mentor (alive or dead)?
One of my first bosses at the Department of State. She taught me a lot about how to find that delicate balance between being a strong person while retaining warmth and good interpersonal skills as key attributes of being an effective leader.
If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting out in your field, what would it be?
You may mature but you’ll never stop growing up as long as you are alive. There’s nothing wrong with thinking about what you want to be when you grow up several times over the course of your life as long as you also think about how you will get there.
Links:
Docs In Progress on Facebook
– Interview by Elena Rossini
What is your name, age, and location?
Joanne Feinberg, 50, Ashland, Oregon.
What is your profession?
Director of Programming at the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
What did you study in school and what degrees do you have?
I have a B.F.A. in Cinema Studies and Film Production, from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
What was your first job?
I was a waitress during college at a jazz club in NYC. It was an incredible education in music, and helped put me through school. I can’t say enough about the life skills that being a waitress teaches you! At the same time I had an internship as the Assistant to the Programmer at the Bleecker Street Cinema, an “art house” theater in NYC, back when you could see classic, foreign and indie films on the big screen every night of the week. Breathless followed by Casablanca followed by Cassavetes. It was an amazing education in film history.
Who or what inspired you to break into your current line of work?
I had great professors at NYU and they really opened my eyes to seeing film in a whole new way. George Stoney taught us to view documentary filmmaking as an agent of social change, in a very human way that was unforgettable. My teachers’ excitement about their own work confirmed how much I wanted to make film and filmmaking my career, and they continue to inspire me to this day. When I was a filmmaker/editor in the Bay Area, I was a juror for local film festivals with a group of other filmmakers. We would spend long weekends watching films together. The discussions were exciting, challenging, and some times infuriating, but I loved the process. This experience greatly influenced my interest in becoming involved with the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
Name/describe what has been your most rewarding project so far?
Absolutely my current work at the Ashland Independent Film Festival for the past 7 years… I feel proud to be part of the team that has brought the Festival to the very vital and exciting place where it is now.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has helped your career?
When I was first starting out, I worked for a number of women who were strongly influenced by the women’s movement in a very positive way when their own careers were taking off. They wanted to hire women and become mentors, and this was very fortunate for me.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has hindered your career?
As women, I think that part of our cultural training is to put others before us – co-workers, family, children. So I have always had to be aware of setting strong boundaries, and not saying “yes” especially when a very appropriate response would be “no!”
Please say a few words on your experience with the work-motherhood balance.
I have three children, a 13 year-old, and 10 year-old twins. I was working as a freelance film editor when I was pregnant with my first child, and decided then to take a break in my career to raise my kids. I was incredibly lucky to be able to do that, and very glad to have that time with them. Now that I am back to “work,” it can be challenging to find the balance to be able to do both “jobs” as well as possible, and my kids complain occasionally! But as cliché as it may sound, I think it is so important for them to see me as someone with an identity other than “Mom,” and to know that it is possible to have a career that you love and are excited about.
Who is your role model or mentor (alive or dead)?
From the time I was nine years old and first started taking photos with a 35mm still camera, I knew that my life work would be connected to film. I wanted to be just like Dorothea Lange and travel the world as a documentary photographer. She was strong, independent, groundbreaking, creative, and so empathetic to her subjects.
If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting out in your field, what would it be?
Programming involves countless hours in front of a computer or in a movie theater seat. Recently, I have found a physical outlet to balance these long hours. I started trail running to have time for myself in nature – to think, breathe deeply, and stay healthy. Running makes me strong, and has helped me develop an inner confidence that I can meet new challenges. I think it is essential! I know you asked for one, but as important is making time for your friends. They give me advice, keep me grounded and make me laugh!
Links:
Ashland Independent Film Festival
– Interview by Elena Rossini
