Dear Readers,
Chicago’s film community is full of people who are not only making movies, but actively reshaping the culture, infrastructure, and possibilities of how those movies get made, seen, and remembered. For the inaugural year of Cinema Femme’s “10 Chicago Film Creatives Breaking Barriers,” we wanted to celebrate some of the women and gender-expansive creatives whose work is helping move our film community forward—and whose impact reaches far beyond their individual roles.
We hope this will become an annual feature, a growing record of the people who are challenging expectations, opening doors, building community, and imagining new possibilities for Chicago film. We are so honored to feature Erica Duffy, Lori Felker, Colette Gabriel, Marya E. Gates, Nicole Kristine Gutiérrez, Natasha Parker Olguin, Katie Waters, Hannah Welever, jada-amina, and the Music Box Theatre’s Rebecca Lyon and Brody Sheldon. While their paths and practices are wildly different, each of these honorees is breaking barriers in their own way: through production and equipment access, filmmaking and teaching, cinematography and education, criticism and programming, representation and storytelling, industry leadership, sound, producing, cultural programming, and film exhibition.
In addition, Cinema Femme had a record year at the Sundance Film Festival, where we covered over 30 features through interviews, essays, and dispatches. We are highlighting a selection of those pieces alongside our festival wrap-up.
Continuing our theme, we’ve included highlights from the past year featuring industry trailblazers, including screenwriter and actor Guinevere Turner (“Go Fish”), Emmy-winning executive producer and writer Simran Baidwan (“The Pitt”), and cinematographer Tari Segal (“Margo’s Got Money Troubles”).
I am also delighted to welcome Megan Henderson as assistant editor for this issue; she is a talented writer, and I’m thrilled to have her on the team.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm
Editor in Chief / Publisher
Cinema Femme magazine
READ THE ISSUE
Cover Photo by Michelle Kaffko, Organic Headshots
Design by Grover Derupe, Kinowerks
Editor in Chief: Rebecca Martin Fagerholm
Assistant Editor: Megan Henderson
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Martin Fagerholm
Megan Henderson
Peyton Robinson
Emily Jacobson
