Aviva Slesin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aviva Slesin is a documentary film-maker.

Slesin was awarded the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for her film The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table in 1987.[1] She is member of the Directors Guild of America and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Slesin has been a MacDowell Fellow [2] and has had a retrospective of her work shown at the Sundance Film Festival[3] She is a member of the faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Slesin is also a painter.[4]

Career[edit]

Documentaries[edit]

Slesin's career was launched in 1975 as a freelance film editor with The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir,[5] produced by Shirley MacLaine and nominated that year for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Next, she edited Making Television Dance[6] about choreographer Twyla Tharp, followed in 1977 by The Rutles, a Beatles satire directed by Monty Python's Eric Idle.[7]

In 1980, Slesin made the transition to independent Producer/Director with nine comedy shorts for the original Saturday Night Live.[8] In 1986, she directed and edited Directed by William Wyler,[9] a biography of the late Hollywood director.

In 1987, Slesin won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for her film The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table. Then, 1990 marked a shift to dramatic films when Slesin directed and executive produced Stood Up! an ABC Afterschool Special.[10] Then Slesin produced and directed Voices in Celebration,[11] a documentary for the National Gallery's fiftieth anniversary. And in 1993 and 1994, she produced and directed the documentary, Hot on the Trail: Sex, Love and Romance in the Old West[12] for TBS.

During 1995 to 1998, Slesin produced and directed a series of short segments for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Kids Talk, John Hockenberry's Edgewise, HBO’s Real Sex, and Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.[13]

In 2003, Slesin produced, directed, and narrated Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII,[14] which was nominated for two Emmys [15] and won a Christopher Award.[16]

Films[edit]

Awards[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ [1], "IMDB"
  2. ^ [2] Archived 2009-05-26 at the Wayback Machine, "MacDowell Colony"
  3. ^ [3], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts"
  4. ^ [4], "Apartment Therapy"
  5. ^ [5], "IMDB - The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir"
  6. ^ [6], "Because Films Inspire"
  7. ^ [7], "Rutle Mania"
  8. ^ [8], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts - Aviva Slesin"
  9. ^ [9], "IMDB - Directed by William Wyler"
  10. ^ [10], "IMDB - Stood Up!"
  11. ^ [11], "Amazon - Voices of Celebration"
  12. ^ [12], "IMDB - Hot on the Trail"
  13. ^ [13], "New York University, Tisch School of the Arts - Aviva Slesin"
  14. ^ [14], "New York Times", Witchel, Alex, October 2, 2002.
  15. ^ [15], "IMDB"
  16. ^ [16] Archived 2015-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, "The Christophers - Archives"

External links[edit]