Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film

Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film


153: Joyce Chopra on "Lady Director"

January 31, 2023

Joyce Chopra broke the glass ceiling for women in film by directing classic works such as the ground-breaking personal documentary "Joyce at 34" and the fiction film "Smooth Talk" that won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 1986. Those films and others are now streaming in a collection of her work on the Criterion Channel. Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Joyce about her new memoir “Lady Director” where she reflects candidly on the highs and lows of her career, including her documentary education at Drew Associates and her clashes with producers Sydney Pollack and Harvey Weinstein that almost caused her to give up filmmaking.

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