Joan Micklin Silver, 'Crossing Delancey' director, dies at 85
Joan Micklin Silver, who forged her own way as a female director in the 1970s and ’80s and helmed seven features including “Crossing Delancey” and “Hester Street,” died Thursday in Manhattan. She was 85.
Her daughter, Claudia Silver, told the New York Times the cause was vascular dementia.
Born to Russian Jewish parents in Omaha, Nebraska, she launched her feature film career with the 1975 independent film “Hester Street” was the story of a Jewish immigrant couple in the 1890s.
The low-budget black and white film, in Yiddish with English subtitles, proved a hard sell to studios - and was eventually financed by her husband, real estate developer Raphael D. Silver.
The 1988 romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey” was also set in Manhattan’s Lower East Side Jewish community.
Her other films included “Between the Lines” (1977), “Chilly Scenes of Winter” (1979), “Finnegan Begin Again” (1985), and “A Private Matter” (1992).
Silver struggled to be taken seriously as a director and couldn’t understand why it was so difficult for women directors to find opportunities. She told Film Comment that “I didn’t want to feel like the woman director. I wanted to feel like one of many women directors.”
At: https://variety.com/2021/film/news/joan-micklin-silver-dead-crossing-delancey-1234877650/
Film maker Joan Micklin Silver, 1935-2020, during filming of the 1985 romantic comedy “Finnegan Begin Again.”
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