Joan Micklin Silver

Joan Micklin Silver (24 May 1935 – 31 December 2020) was an American director of films and plays

Quotes

• I came of age for film, at a time when the sexism was pretty strong. And although I could get work as a Writer, I couldn’t get work as a Director at all. And I had the experience of watching young men who had made shorts as I had, prize winning shorts, as I had, moving on to directing films and I couldn’t do it. And, and my husband, Ray [Ray Silver], was… became angry, and he said, “You know, maybe you can do it, maybe you can’t, but everybody should have a chance to try for the brass ring.”
  • Primary Source - Directors Guild of America’s Visual Oral History Program - Interview by Michael Pressman - Chapter 1 - Visual History with Joan Micklin Silver - 19 September 2005 - Archive
  • Secondary Source - MSN Entertainment article by Tyler Aquilina - Joan Micklin Silver, boundary-breaking director of Crossing Delancey, dies at 85 - 2 January 2021 - Archive

• My own experience with my films has been that the more I’m left alone, the better I do. It isn’t that I think I’m smarter than anyone, or anything like that. It’s just that whatever my instincts are, it’s better for me to be able to put those into play in my own work.
  • Primary Source - Directors Guild of America’s Visual Oral History Program - Interview by Michael Pressman - Chapter 3 - Visual History with Joan Micklin Silver - 19 September 2005 - Archive
  • Secondary Sources -
  • New York Times article by Anita Gates - Joan Micklin Silver, Director of ‘Crossing Delancey,’ Dies at 85 - 1 January 2021 - Archive
  • MSN Entertainment article by Tyler Aquilina - Joan Micklin Silver, boundary-breaking director of Crossing Delancey, dies at 85 - 2 January 2021 - Archive

• I don’t think too many people had what I had, a husband who believed in me and who wanted to help me. (discussing the support and encouragement she received at the start of her film career)
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Article & Interview by Vadim Rizov - “Women Directors are One More Problem We Don’t Need”: Joan Micklin Silver on Chilly Scenes of Winter - 11 November 2014 - Archive

• So many directors that I admire do things in two takes, like Lumet, and then there are directors like Arthur Penn, who did 40 takes. Whatever works for you, but I like to get it, and once I’ve got it move on. I don’t keep doing it to see if anything else will come. I haven’t ever had where I’ve had so much time or money where I would have had the time to do 40 takes. (as an answer to if she has a preferance to do a minimum number of takes)
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Article & Interview by Vadim Rizov - “Women Directors are One More Problem We Don’t Need”: Joan Micklin Silver on Chilly Scenes of Winter - 11 November 2014 - Archive

• I really love being the person who in the end gets to make the decisions and have it become the way you want it to be and that urge is an overpowering urge that I have that makes me want to make films.
  • NYWIFT Archive - Interview by Norma Davidoff - at 43 Min 29 Sec - Remembering Joan Micklin Silver, Director & NYWIFT Advisory Board Member - Original Interview from 5 April 2006 - Published 15 January 2021 - Youtube Link - Archive

• It's a human truth that romantic fantasies are very hard to let go of and while it would be very nice to say Izzy, observing the difference between the two men realize that immediately that Sam was the better choice. I mean maybe you know maybe you work more rationally than than Izzy I don't know. But I mean the thing is that that you don't always do what's good for you, you know you don't always do what's right for you and sometimes you have to grow past it or go through something in order to reject it. (discussing the lead character's decision making in the film Crossing Delancey)
  • AFI Conservatory Harold Lloyd Master Seminar series - AFI Movie Club - From the AFI Archive - Joan Micklin Silver on Crossing Delancey - at 1 Min 10 Sec - AFI Movie Club: CROSSING DELANCEY - 24 May 2021 - Youtube Link - Archive

Quotes about Joan Micklin Silver

• Abstract notions of feminism never interested Joan; specific women and their stories did. Yet without setting out to do so, Joan Silver influenced generations of women to come. She was a trail-blazer, a risk-taker, a champion of other women directors. And always as quietly confident as she was the day I met her some fifty years ago.
  • By Linda Gottlieb (American Television Writer and Film Producer)
  • Jewish Women's Archive article by Linda Gottlieb - Joan Micklin Silver, 1935–2020 - January 2021 - Archive

• Joan Micklin Silver was one of the most courageous artists I ever knew. She knew she could prevail at a time when women were not being taken seriously as film directors. We have all been deprived of seeing so many many other great movies that Joan was ready and prepared to give us.
  • By Carol Kane (American Actress and Comedian)
  • AP News article by Andrew Dalton - ‘Crossing Delancey’ Director Joan Micklin Silver dies at 85 - 3 January 2021 - Archive

• The pathbreaking movie director Joan Micklin Silver got to have a career that almost no woman was allowed to have, and did not get to have the career that she deserved. Such is the paradox of the pioneer: You get to go where very few have gone before, but when you get there, there’s nobody to pull you up or push you ahead. You make your own way, and withstand the indifference, the hostility, the condescension, and the people who treat you as a curiosity or a slightly troubling anomaly.
  • By Mark Harris (American Journalist and Author)
  • Vulture article by Mark Harris - Joan Micklin Silver Had the Movie Career Almost No Woman Was Allowed to Have - 4 January 2021 - Archive

• Hollywood, of course, expected women to be collaborative, but had no intention of rewarding them for it. So she stayed independent. (Hollywood's ignorance of Joan Micklin Silver's talents and ambition)
  • By Mark Harris (American Journalist and Author)
  • Vulture article by Mark Harris - Joan Micklin Silver Had the Movie Career Almost No Woman Was Allowed to Have - 4 January 2021 - Archive

• We were so young and had never produced anything, and Joan was infinitely patient and remarkably assured on the set. We learned so much about movies from her. And she really knew how to talk to actors. John [Heard] could be tricky — he was moody and had a tough reputation. But he never gave her a moment of trouble. (memories of the production of Chilly Scenes of Winter)
  • By Griffin Dunne (American Actor, Film Producer, and Film Director)
  • Vulture article by Mark Harris - Joan Micklin Silver Had the Movie Career Almost No Woman Was Allowed to Have - 4 January 2021 - Archive

• Great American filmmaker not nearly revered enough, I think she should be talked about alongside John Cassavetes as people who really moved the needle for American Indie Cinema, like after World War II and before Sundance.
  • By Alonso Duralde (American Film Critic, Author, and Podcaster)
  • Breakfast All Day Podcast - Hosted by Christy Lemire, Alonso Duralde, and Matt Atchity - at 46 Min 30 Sec- Patreon - Episode 157: News, Best and Worst Films of 2020 - 9 January 2021 - Youtube Link - at 46 Min 16 Sec - Archive