Sarah Kernochan facts for kids

Sarah Marshall Kernochan, born on December 30, 1947, is a talented American filmmaker, writer, and even a singer-songwriter! She is famous for directing and writing movies and documentaries. Sarah has won two Academy Awards, which are very important awards in the film world. She won for her documentary films Marjoe in 1973 and Thoth in 2002.

Early Life and Education

Sarah Kernochan was born in New York City. Her mother, Adelaide, worked as a consultant for UNESCO, an organization that promotes peace and education. Her father, John Marshall Kernochan, was a professor at Columbia Law School. Sarah's family has a history of interesting people, including her grandfather, Wayne Chatfield-Taylor, who worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Sarah went to Rosemary Hall school and graduated in 1965. A famous actress named Glenn Close was one of her classmates there! After high school, Sarah attended Sarah Lawrence College in 1966.

Her Amazing Career

After college, Sarah worked as a ghostwriter for a newspaper called The Village Voice. This means she wrote articles for others without getting public credit. Soon, she became very interested in making documentary films.

Award-Winning Documentaries

Sarah became well-known in the United States when she co-directed and co-produced the film Marjoe in 1972. This documentary was about a young evangelist named Marjoe Gortner. The film was a big success and won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Her second documentary, Thoth, also won an Academy Award in 2002. This time, it was for Best Documentary Short Subject. This shows how talented she is at telling real-life stories through film!

Writing for the Big Screen

Sarah Kernochan is also a skilled screenwriter, meaning she writes scripts for movies. Her first movie script was for 9½ Weeks in 1986. She then wrote Dancers in 1987, which starred the famous ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. This movie showed the behind-the-scenes world of a ballet company.

Sarah became known in Hollywood for her unique writing style. She likes to create female characters who are very real and have many different sides to them, just like male characters.

She has written scripts for many other films, including:

• Impromptu (1991), which her husband, James Lapine, directed.
• Sommersby (1993).
• The Hairy Bird (1998), which she also directed.
• What Lies Beneath (2000), where she helped create the story.
• Learning to Drive (2014), starring Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson.

Sarah has also taught screenwriting at Emerson College, sharing her knowledge with new writers.

Writing Books

Besides movies, Sarah Kernochan has written novels. Her first novel, Dry Hustle, was published in 1977. In 2011, she released her first novel in over 35 years called Jane Was Here. This book tells the mysterious story of a young woman named Jane who arrives in a new town with strange memories of a past life she doesn't remember living there.

Music and Songs

Sarah Kernochan is also a singer, lyricist (someone who writes song words), and composer (someone who writes music). After her film Marjoe came out, she released two albums as a singer-songwriter on RCA Records: House of Pain and Beat Around the Bush.

In 2013, she released her third album, Decades of Demos. She also wrote a musical called Sleeparound Town, which was a show about growing up and featured five teenagers.

Personal Life

Sarah Kernochan is married to James Lapine, a well-known American stage director. James has won a Pulitzer Prize and three Tony Awards for his work in theater. Sarah and James have a daughter named Phoebe Lapine, who is a writer focusing on food and health.