Jill Godmilow (born Joan Godmilow; November 23, 1943) is an American independent filmmaker, primarily of non-fiction works, and an advocate for Post-Realism in documentary. She is an

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

. Godmilow is a recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Early life

Born Joan Godmilow near

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, the younger daughter of Herbert and Beatrice (Schlaifman) Godmilow, she studied Russian literature at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, graduating in 1965.

Career

Godmilow's 1974 film with collaborator

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...

, '' Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman'', about female conductor Antonia Brico, received a nomination for

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

, and in 2003 was selected for the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. In 1984, she made ''Far From Poland'', a non-fiction feature about contradictions in the Polish Solidarity movement, filmed entirely in the U.S. It was heralded for breaking new ground in the documentary genre. Her 1987 feature film '' Waiting for the Moon'' is a biography of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

and

Alice B. Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was born in San F ...

, played by actresses

Linda Hunt Linda Hunt (born Lydia Susanna Hunt; April 2, 1945) is an American actress. She made her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye (film), ''Popeye'' (1980). Her portrayal of the male character Billy Kwan in ''The Year of Living Dangerously (fil ...

and

Linda Bassett Linda Bassett (born 4 February 1950) is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's '' dinnerladies'' (1999), '' Lark Rise to Candleford'' (2008–11), '' Grandma's House'' (2010–12) and ''Call the Midwife'' (2015–pre ...

. It was produced for PBS's ''

American Playhouse ''American Playhouse'' is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It premiered on January 12, 1982, with ''The Shady Hill Kidnapping'', written and narrated by John Cheever and direc ...

'' series, released theatrically by Skouras Pictures, and won

Best Feature Film Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in 1987. In 1998, ''What Farocki Taught'' premiered at the

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

. The film is a replica, in color and in English, of

Harun Farocki Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film. Early life and education Farocki was born as Harun El Usman FaroqhiMargalit Fox (3 August 2014)''New York Times''. in Neutitschein, which is n ...

's 1969 black and white German language film ''Inextinguishable Fire'', on the production of

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium ...

Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company was among the three largest chemical producers in the world in 2021. It is the operating subsidiary of Dow Inc., ...

. Her film was featured in the 2000

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

. In 2022, she published ''Kill the Documentary: A Letter to Filmmakers, Students, and Scholars'', published by Columbia University Press, which the author prefers to call "a manifesto"."''Kill the Documentary: A Letter to Filmmakers, Students, and Scholars'': Jill Godmilow's Manifesto Takes on the Nonfiction Form"
documentary.org. Accessed October 31, 2024.

References

External links

*
Profile
Video Data Bank (vdb.org)
"What's Wrong With the Liberal Documentary?"
Jill Godmilow, Peace Review, March 1999
Un-Documenting History: An Interview with Filmmaker Jill Godmilow by Lynn C. Miller, Text Performance Quarterly, July 7, 1997, vol 7, number 3"How Real Is the Reality in Documentary Films? – Jill Godmilow in conversation with Ann-Louise Shapiro"
''History and Theory'', Vol 36, No. 4, 1997, Wesleyan University Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Godmilow, Jill 1943 births Living people American women documentary filmmakers American documentary filmmakers Film directors from Pennsylvania Artists from Philadelphia University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Sundance Film Festival award winners American women academics 21st-century American women

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links