Aviva Slesin
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Aviva Slesin is a documentary film-maker.
Slesin was awarded the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for her film The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table in 1987.[1] She is member of the Directors Guild of America and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Slesin has been a MacDowell Fellow [2] and has had a retrospective of her work shown at the Sundance Film Festival[3] She is a member of the faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Slesin is also a painter.[4]
Career
[edit]Documentaries
[edit]Slesin's career was launched in 1975 as a freelance film editor with The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir,[5] produced by Shirley MacLaine and nominated that year for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Next, she edited Making Television Dance[6] about choreographer Twyla Tharp, followed in 1977 by The Rutles, a Beatles satire directed by Monty Python's Eric Idle.[7]
In 1980, Slesin made the transition to independent Producer/Director with nine comedy shorts for the original Saturday Night Live.[8] In 1986, she directed and edited Directed by William Wyler,[9] a biography of the late Hollywood director.
In 1987, Slesin won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for her film The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table. Then, 1990 marked a shift to dramatic films when Slesin directed and executive produced Stood Up! an ABC Afterschool Special.[10] Then Slesin produced and directed Voices in Celebration,[11] a documentary for the National Gallery's fiftieth anniversary. And in 1993 and 1994, she produced and directed the documentary, Hot on the Trail: Sex, Love and Romance in the Old West[12] for TBS.
During 1995 to 1998, Slesin produced and directed a series of short segments for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Kids Talk, John Hockenberry's Edgewise, HBO’s Real Sex, and Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.[13]
In 2003, Slesin produced, directed, and narrated Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII,[14] which was nominated for two Emmys [15] and won a Christopher Award.[16]
Films
[edit]- Directed by William Wyler (1986)
- The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table (1987)
- Stood Up (1990)
- Voices in Celebration (1980)
- Hot on The Trial: Sex, Love and Romance in the Old West (1993)
- Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (2003)
Awards
[edit]- Academy Award (Oscar)
- Inspirational Film Award, Hamptons International Film Festival
- Lillian Gish Award, Los Angeles Women in Film Festival
- Christopher Award
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ [1], "IMDB"
- ^ [2] Archived 2009-05-26 at the Wayback Machine, "MacDowell Colony"
- ^ [3], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts"
- ^ [4], "Apartment Therapy"
- ^ [5], "IMDB - The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir"
- ^ [6], "Because Films Inspire"
- ^ [7], "Rutle Mania"
- ^ [8], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts - Aviva Slesin"
- ^ [9], "IMDB - Directed by William Wyler"
- ^ [10], "IMDB - Stood Up!"
- ^ [11], "Amazon - Voices of Celebration"
- ^ [12], "IMDB - Hot on the Trail"
- ^ [13], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts - Aviva Slesin"
- ^ [14], "New York Times", Witchel, Alex, October 2, 2002.
- ^ [15], "IMDB"
- ^ [16] Archived 2015-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, "The Christophers - Archives"