Margaret Lazarus

Margaret Lazarus (born January 22, 1949 ) is an American film producer and director . She mainly produces socially critical and feminist documentaries .

Live and act

Margaret Lazarus grew up in Queens as the only daughter of two teachers. Her parents were active in the teachers' union and campaigned against racism until they ran into a conflict of interests in 1968 with the Brownsville School Strike . Lazarus developed an awareness of social justice through her politically active parental home. She was introduced to Jewish culture through her grandparents who lived nearby.

Lazarus attended Vassar College until 1969 , where she devoted herself to the fine arts and obtained a BA . She then studied communications and media at Boston University . In 1972 she completed her studies with a master's degree . At Boston University she met her future husband Renner Wunderlich (* 1947), with whom she had two sons.

Lazarus' professional career began with a private Boston TV broadcaster, where she worked first as a researcher, then as a writer and finally as a producer of public affairs . However , they were bothered by the commercial orientation and frequent interruption of the TV program with commercials . In 1974 she and Wunderlich founded their own production company, Cambridge Documentary Films , in Massachusetts , a non-profit corporation . In the same year, she released her first documentary, Taking Our Bodies Back , about the women's health movement . This was followed by other documentaries on topics such as rape , domestic violence , homophobia and the image of women in the media. With these topics they often broke new cinematic territory. Her short film Defending Our Lives (1994), about women imprisoned for the murder of their abusive partner, won an Oscar .

Lazarus lives with her husband in Belmont , Massachusetts. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, she gives courses at American universities, for example at Tufts University on the subject of Producing Films for Social Change . She is the author of magazine articles as well as the chapter on violence and abuse in the feminist standard work on women's health Our Bodies, Ourselves . She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .

Awards (selection)

• 1994 : Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film ( Defending Our Lives )
• 1994: Independent Film Award at the New England Film & Video Festival ( Defending Our Lives )
• 1995: Alumni Award from Boston University
• Senior Scholarship from the Tisch School at Tufts University

Filmography

• 1974: Taking Our Bodies Back
• 1975: Rape Culture
• 1977: Eugene Debs and the American Movement
• 1979: Killing Us Softly
• 1982: Pink Triangles
• 1982: Calling the Shots
• 1985: Choosing Children
• 1986: The Last Empire
• 1987: Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women
• 1989: Hazardous Inheritance
• 1990: Not Just a Job
• 1991: Life's Work
• 1991: Advertising Alcohol
• 1994: Defending Our Lives
• 1998: Strong at the Broken Places: Turning Trauma to Recovery
• 1999: Women's Rights, Human Rights
• 2000: Beyond Killing Us Softly
• 2003: Rape Is ...
• 2010: BirthMarkings

Web links

• Literature by and about Margaret Lazarus in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Margaret Lazarus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Biography in the Jewish Women's Archive
• Information about Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich on the Cambridge Documentary Films website
• Information about Lazarus and her film Rape Is ..

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} JWA - Women Who Dared - Biography Margaret Lazarus. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
2. ↑ Alexandra Grabbe: Documentarian Revisits Evils in Advertising. vq.vassar.edu. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
3. ↑ Can a Film Change the World? COM alum filmmakers on documentaries that make a difference. bu.edu. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
4. ^ Braden Hendricks: Oscar-winning Lazarus raises poignant issues. In: The Chronicle March 20, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
5. ↑ Ann Jackman: A Voice for Social Change ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. September 1, 2002, newenglandfilm.com. Retrieved February 18, 2013. 
6. ↑ Academy Awards Acceptance Speeches aaspeechesdb.oscars.org. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
7. ↑ Speakers careers.tufts.edu. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
8. ↑ Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth, Contributors' Bios ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ourbodiesourselves.org. Retrieved February 18, 2013. 
9. ↑ BirthMarkings newenglandfilm.com. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
10. ↑ Complete Alumni Awards List ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. bu.edu. Retrieved February 18, 2013.