Ally Acker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ally Acker
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| Born | August 17, 1954 New York City, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Northwestern University Columbia University |
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Ally Acker was born on August 17, 1954, in New York. She is an American filmmaker, poet, author, and film historian. She is known for her work that highlights the important roles women have played in the movie industry.
Her book, Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, was the first of its kind. It showed how women were creative and powerful forces in filmmaking from the very beginning. In 1995, this book was even turned into one of the first interactive CD-ROMs, called Reel Women: The Untold Story. Later, in 2014, Ally Acker directed a documentary film. It was called "REEL HERSTORY: The REAL Story of Reel Women" and was hosted by the famous actress Jodie Foster.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
A Pioneer in Radio
When Ally Acker was just 17 years old, she achieved something amazing. She became the first woman to get a special license from the FCC. This license allowed her to operate radio transmitters.
At 18, she was hired by WOR AM radio in New York. She became their first female engineer. At WOR, Ally worked with well-known radio personalities like Jean Shepherd and Arlene Francis.
Moving to Television
After finishing her studies at Northwestern University in 1976, Ally Acker started working in television. She became a video editor for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.. This was an NBC news station.
From 1977 to 1980, she also worked as a freelance radio producer. She interviewed important writers, including Alice Walker. This interview was later broadcast on National Public Radio.
Filmmaking Dreams
In 1978, Ally Acker directed, produced, filmed, and edited a 16mm movie. It was called Silver Apples of the Moon. This film was so good that it became a finalist for a Student Academy Award.
In 1980, she moved to New York to focus on filmmaking. She worked as an assistant to film editor Sam Pollard. A year later, NBC hired her as a video editor for shows like The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. Soon after, she became a producer and writer for The Today Show. This made her the first technician at NBC in New York to move into a producing and writing role.
Highlighting Women in Film (1980s–1990s)
The Reel Women Trust Foundation
In 1985, Ally Acker started The Reel Women Trust Foundation. Its goal was to celebrate the amazing stories of women in all fields. These were women whose contributions were often left out of traditional history books.
She began interviewing women who were pioneers in film. These interviews were for The Reel Women Video Archives. From 1985 to 1994, she interviewed many famous people. These included Jodie Foster, Katharine Hepburn, Nora Ephron, and Lillian Gish.
Ally Acker later gave this collection of interviews to the Academy Film Archive. This archive is part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is now called The Reel Women in Film Collection. Film students and researchers can use it to learn more about women in movies.
Art and Poetry
In 1985, Ally Acker also interviewed the famous Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. This interview was used in Acker's film about Carrington's life. The film is called The Flowering of the Crone: Leonora Carrington, Another Reality. It was made between 2012 and 2014. This film is the only authorized movie about Carrington made in the United States.
In 1987, Ally Acker earned her Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. She studied film and poetry at Columbia University. Her screenplay, The Mathematical Mermaid, was a finalist for a special award in 1988.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Ally Acker worked as a writer and producer. She worked for major TV networks like NBC, ABC, and Disney Channel. During these years, she also focused on her poetry. She had started writing poems at age 13.
Her first book of poetry, Surviving Desire, came out in 1994. Her second book, Waiting for the Beloved, was released in 1999. In 2010, her book Some Help From the Dead was published. Her poems have appeared in many literary magazines. She has also received awards for her poetry.
Later Works (2000s)
Expanding Reel Women
In 2012, Ally Acker greatly updated her original Reel Women book. It is now used in universities around the world. She expanded it into a two-volume series. The first volume is Reel Women: The First Hundred Years, Volume One. The second is Volume Two. Both books include photos from the famous Bison Archives.
In 2014, Ally Acker directed, co-wrote, and edited a three-part feature film. It was called Reel Herstory: The REAL Story of Reel Women. This film used the rich interviews she had gathered for The Reel Women Video Archives. Actress Jodie Foster hosted the film.
Sharing Her Knowledge
Ally Acker's writing has appeared in several magazines. Her work is also included in the book Notable American Women. She is on the editorial board of Poetry Salzburg Review, a magazine published in Austria.
Ally Acker has traveled to universities and film festivals. She gives talks about the history of women in film. She has also appeared on TV shows as a film historian. Her book Reel Women was even the focus of a three-part series on National Public Radio. In 2015, Ally Acker appeared in a documentary called The Women Who Run Hollywood.
