User talk:Lisacapp

Jyll Johnstone, Director’s Guild of America Award nominated director and internationally acclaimed documentary film producer and writer, produced Hats Off, Throwing Curves and Martha and Ethel. Johnstone was born and raised in Manhattan, attended Bard College, and graduated from New York University. Before moving to California in 1992, she was an actress in New York. Johnstone manages Canobie Films, Inc., independent producer of documentaries on contemporary social issues.

Martha and Ethel, Johnstone’s first film, premiered at Sundance in 1994 and was subsequently internationally presented at film festivals including Toronto, San Francisco (Grand Prize), Hamptons (Best Documentary), Melbourne, Sydney, and Hong Kong. The film profiles two women of disparate backgrounds (Martha, refugee of Nazi Germany, and Ethel, native of South Carolina) whose lives led them to two social pedigreed families in post World War II New York, where they found employment as nannies for two growing broods of children. Martha and Ethel garnered Johnstone a Directors Guild nomination and the film has been distributed by Sony Picture Classics.

Throwing Curves, Johnstone's second film, is the story of famed ceramicist and industrial designer Eva Zeisel. The film follows Ms. Zeisel from her birth in Hungary in 1906 through her career in many of the 20th century's hot spots of design, including Berlin in the '20s, Russia in the '30s and New York in the '50s. The film interweaves her design work with her dramatic life story, including imprisonment in the Soviet Union, escape from Nazi Germany and establishment of a new life as an immigrant in post-war New York City. The film explores as well the delicate tension that arises for Ms. Zeisel between the responsibilites of motherhood and her pioneering career in the industrial arts.

Hats Off, Johnstone’s third documentary, was shot over the course of ten years beginning in 1996 and completed in 2007. The film screened at the Telluride Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Hats Off documents the story of actor and model Mimi Weddell, mother of Johnstone’s childhood friend, Sarah Dillon. The film centers around Mimi's day-to-day life, focusing on her exuberant personality and relationship with her children. It follows Mimi from her apartment to dance lessons, auditions, and fashionable strolls around New York City. Mimi modeled for high fashion labels including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Nike, Juicy Couture and acted in the HBO television series, Sex and the City.

References: http://www.canobiefilms.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throwing_Curves:_Eva_Zeisel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Zeisel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimi_Weddell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hats_Off_(2008_film)

External Sites: http://www.hatsoffthemovie.com/