Sande Zeig is an American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and writer. She was the partner of late

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

feminist writer

Monique Wittig Monique Wittig (; 13 July 1935 – 3 January 2003) was a French author, philosopher, and feminist theorist who wrote about abolition of the sex-class system and coined the phrase "heterosexual contract." Her groundbreaking work is titled '' The ...

. She directed the 2000 romantic drama '' The Girl''.

Biography

Sande Zeig is from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and is of Jewish heritage. She studied theater in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1975, Zeig was living in Paris, studying

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

and teaching

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

, when she met the writer Monique Wittig. Zeig and Wittig co-wrote the French book ''Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes'', which they both later translated into the English ''Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary''. The work is a piece of

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

, using its own form and contents to critique the male-centric viewpoints commonly used in encyclopedic dictionaries. The entries in their encyclopedia describe a fictional lesbian utopia, and in the original French edition, even nouns and pronouns which would normally have masculine endings are written with feminine endings instead. The entry for

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

is one blank page, which scholar Jack Winkler describes as appropriate and refreshing given Sappho's poetry and reception. In the title of the French edition, ''Brouillon'' means rough draft. Scholar Kristine Anderson interprets this as a comment on how much more of the lesbian world exists than can be captured in the work, and more broadly, a reminder that all encyclopedias fail to capture a full portrayal of the world. Zeig and Wittig collaborated on a theater piece called "The Constant Journey." They used distancing effects and subverted theater conventions to alienate the audience, allowing for more lesbian themes to come through in the work. Zeig and Jeff Lunger were primary programmers for the New Festival for several years, choosing experimental films with the goal of attracting the attention and respect of the art-film industry. The board replaced them in 1993 with a selection committee, with the goal of choosing a new palate of films that would be more commercial and help the festival connect with sponsors and distributors. Zeig's 2000 film, '' The Girl'' is based on a short story by Wittig. Her 2008 biographical film '' Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha'' follows the work of two

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

healers Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices ar ...

, one of whom had previously treated Zeig's father. Zeig is the founder of

film distribution Film distribution, also called film exhibition or film distribution and exhibition, is the process of making a film available for viewing to an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketin ...

company Artistic License Films. Wittig, Zeig's partner of many years, died on January 3, 2003.

Filmography

*''

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

'' (1994) *'' The Girl'' (2000) *'' Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha'' (2008) *'' Apache 8'' (2011) *'' Sister Jaguar's Journey'' (2015) *'' The Living Saint of Thailand: Venerable Mae Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta''(2019) *'' Firelighters:Fire Is Medicine''(2024)

Bibliography

*''Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary'' (''Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes'') — coauthored with Monique Wittig

References

External links

*
Sande Zeig's filmApache 8
at

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Maria Dougherty, Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from ...

Film directors from New York City Jewish American feminists American feminists Lesbian feminists American LGBTQ film directors Lesbian Jews American lesbian writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American women film directors LGBTQ people from New York (state) Writers from New York (state) 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women essayists 20th-century American non-fiction writers {{US-film-director-stub

Biography

Filmography

Bibliography

See also

References

External links