Kimberly Peirce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kimberly Peirce (born September 8, 1967), is an American film director, notable for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry (1999). Her second feature, Stop-Loss, has been released by Paramount Pictures on March 28, 2008 in the USA and in Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Peirce grew up in a trailer park.[citation needed] She graduated from Miami Sunset High School in Miami, Florida and attended the University of Chicago,[1] earning a degree in English and Japanese Literature.[citation needed] She moved for several years to Kobe, Japan, working as a photographer and model.[citation needed] Upon returning to America, she enrolled at Columbia University,[1] earning an MFA in film.[1] Initially, Peirce pursued a story about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War for her thesis,[citation needed] but eventually nixed the plan due to a lack of personal connection with the story.[citation needed]
While attending Columbia, Peirce read a Village Voice article[citation needed] about Brandon Teena, a transman raped and murdered in Falls City, Nebraska.[1] Switching from her original thesis project, Peirce traveled to Falls City, where she researched and attended the trial of the two homicide suspects.[1] The subsequent film short she made for her thesis in 1995 was nominated by Columbia faculty for a Princess Grace Award, and received an Astrea Production Grant.[1] That grant and her involvement with the Sundance Institute;'s 1997 Sundance Filmmakers, Writers and Producers Labs helped her develop the short into the 1999 feature film Boys Don't Cry.[1]
[edit] Later life and career
Since then, she has directed an episode of the Showtime television series The L Word, and the Paramount Pictures feature Stop-Loss.
Canceled projects she worked on in the interim included co-writing the script Silent Star, about the murder of silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, for the studio DreamWorks; a David Mamet script she would direct about gangster John Dillinger; directing the adaptation of author Dave Eggers' memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; and research for a Columbia Pictures film she would direct about the execution of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen.[2]
As of 2008, Peirce was co-writing a feature title Sex, Secrets and Taboo in Suburbia,[1] a romantic comedy with a "gender twist",[1] and a New Orleans gangster movie.[1] As of April 2008, Peirce lives with lesbian partner Evren Savci.
[edit] Filmography
-
-
- Leopard of Tomorrow Program at 1994 Locarno International Film Festival[1]
-
- Boys Don't Cry (1999) (director & writer)
- The L Word (2006) (director - 1 episode (Lifeline - 3x05), TV series)
- Stop-Loss (2008) (director & writer)
[edit] Awards
- Second place, Canada International Film Festival - "The Last Good Breath"[1]
- Golden Award, Experiment Division, Chicago International Film Festival - "The Last Good Breath" [1]
- First place, Suffolk Film Festival[1]
- Best Debut Director - National Board of Review[1]
- Best New Filmmaker - Boston Society of Film Critics[1]
