Greta Schiller facts for kids

Greta Schiller is an American filmmaker. She is known for directing and producing documentaries. Her most famous films include Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (1984) and Paris Was a Woman (1995).

Career Highlights

Greta Schiller started making films in the 1970s. Her 1976 short film Greta's Girls was one of the first independent films to focus on stories about women who love women.

In 1981, she helped direct Greetings from Washington, D.C.. This documentary showed the first big march for equal rights for gay people, which happened in 1979.

Award-Winning Documentaries

In 1984, Schiller directed Before Stonewall. This film won two Emmy awards. It used interviews and old media to show the history of gay and lesbian people from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. Before Stonewall was the first film about gay or lesbian history to get money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This group helps fund public television programs.

In 1985, Schiller and Andrea Weiss started Jezebel Productions. This is a non-profit film company in New York City. They wanted to make films that told important stories, especially about women.

Schiller and Weiss worked together on many films. These include International Sweethearts of Rhythm (1986). This film was about African American women musicians in the 1930s and 1940s. They also made Tiny & Ruby: Hell Divin' Women (1988).

Their film Paris Was a Woman (1996) was very special to them. It took five years to make. The film is about creative women who lived in Paris in the 1920s. It became very popular and broke box office records. In 2023, Schiller and Weiss co-directed The Five Demands.

Greta Schiller has directed other films too. These include Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be In Love (1990) and Woman of the Wolf (1994). She also directed The Man Who Drove with Mandela (1998). In 2010, she produced and directed No Dinosaurs in Heaven. This film looked at the issue of creationism in science education. In 2020, she directed The Land of Azaba. This was the first feature documentary about restoring nature. It won an award for "Best Cinematography."

Awards and Recognition

Greta Schiller has won many awards for her films.

Her film Before Stonewall won an award at the Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It was also nominated for a Grand Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women earned Schiller a Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. She won another Teddy Award in 1999 for The Man Who Drove with Mandela. This film also won "Best Documentary" at the Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

In 2019, the Library of Congress chose Schiller's film Before Stonewall for the National Film Registry. This means the film is considered very important for its culture, history, or art. It will be saved forever.

Filmography

• Greta's Girls (1978)
• Greetings from Washington, D.C. (1981)
• Before Stonewall (1984)
• International Sweethearts of Rhythm (1986)
• Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women (1989)
• Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be In Love (1990)
• Woman of the Wolf (1994)
• Paris Was a Woman (1996)
• The Man Who Drove with Mandela (1998)
• Seed of Sarah (1998)
• Escape To Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (2000) (directed by Andrea Weiss)
• I Live at Ground Zero (2002)
• U.N. Fever (2008)
• No Dinosaurs in Heaven (2010)
• The Marion Lake Story: Defeating the Mighty Phragmite (2014)
• Bones of Contention (2017)
• The Land of Azaba (2020)
• The Five Demands (2023)

Personal Life

Greta Schiller has received special scholarships and grants for her film work. These include the US/UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Film.

See also

In Spanish: Greta Schiller para niños

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women
• List of LGBT people from New York City
• NYC Pride March