Lucy Walker (director)

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Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker (born in London, United Kingdom) is a two-time Academy Award nominated British film director, whose films have won over fifty awards. On 25 January 2011 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Waste Land, which she directed. The film has won over thirty awards including Audience Awards at Sundance and Berlin and the IDA's Best Documentary and Pare Lorentz Awards.

On 24 January 2012 she received a second consecutive Academy Award nomination, this time in the Best Documentary Short category for The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, which she directed and produced. Other accolades for the film include the Short Film Jury Award: Non-Fiction at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

In June 2012 she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).[1] She is also a member of the British Academy (BAFTA), the Writers' Guild (WGA) and the Directors' Guild (DGA).

Contents

Life and career [edit]

Filmography [edit]

  • Devil's Playground (2002) 76 minutes
  • Blindsight (2006) 104 minutes
  • Countdown To Zero (2010) 89 minutes
  • Waste Land (2010) 100 minutes
  • The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) 39/53 minutes
  • The Crash Reel (2013) 107 minutes

Early life [edit]

Lucy Walker was born in London, United Kingdom, started directing theatre in high school and continued as an undergraduate at Oxford University. The first play she directed and produced there, Querm, swept the prestigious Oxford University Dramatic Society Cuppers awards. Walker was the Artistic Director of theatre group New Company and her original outdoor musical productions of The Jungle Book and Tintin and the Broken Ear were considered cult hits. After graduating from New College, Oxford with a B.A. (Hons) and M.A. (Oxon) starred first-class honours in Language and Literature she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the graduate film program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she won a contest to direct a video for Cowboy Junkies, directed three award-winning short films and received an MFA. Walker was the ex-fiancee of the former Labour Cabinet minister, James Purnell, who she met when she was at Oxford.[2]

Film career [edit]

Lucy Walker is best known for directing five feature documentary films: Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), "The Crash Reel" (2013) as well as several shorts, most notably The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011).

Lucy first met Kevin Pearce (snowboarder) while mentoring at a retreat intended to inspire Nike, Inc's action sports athletes to use their platform for social change at the invitation of David Mayer de Rothschild who had created the event. Lucy was immediately struck by Kevin and wanted to make a documentary film about him, and the result is "The Crash Reel", which premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2013 as the Opening Night Gala film in the Documentary Premieres section (out of competition). The film is described as a jaw-dropping story of one unforgettable athlete, Kevin Pearce; one eye-popping sport, snowboarding; and one explosive issue, traumatic brain injury. Through 20 years of sports and verite footage, “The Crash Reel” chronicles the epic rivalry between Kevin and Shaun White which culminates in Kevin's life-changing crash and a comeback story with a difference. The film also showcases the remarkable Pearce family, including Kevin's father renowned glass-blower Simon Pearce and Kevin's brother David C. Pearce who is particularly eloquent about his struggle to accept his Down Syndrome. The film also premiered at the X Games on 23 January 2013 in Aspen as the first ever movie to play as a featured part of the event. The film is currently screening at top festivals including Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Miami, True/False, Hot Docs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Ashland, Full Frame, Silverdocs, Cleveland, Dallas, Sarasota, MountainFilm Telluride and many more prior to theatrical releases and broadcasts worldwide.

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom is described as "a visual haiku for Japan" documenting the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the survivors' struggle to survive and continue, and as a personal, poetic film about the ephemeral nature of life, and the process of healing after grief and loss. Walker was originally planning to be in Japan during the sakura cherry blossom season as she had always wanted to visit Hiroshima and had always loved photographing cherry blossoms and she had been invited to visit Japan for a press junket to support Countdown to Zero, which was being released by Paramount Pictures. However due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster the release of that film was postponed and the press junket cancelled.[3][4] Initially Walker was concerned that it would be too difficult to film at that time, but then decided that it was a more important time than ever to make a film in Japan and to express solidarity and support for Japanese people and culture at such an extremely challenging time, and so she traveled to Japan with longterm collaborator cinematographer Aaron Phillips to shoot in March and April 2011, mostly in the devastated Tōhoku region, as well as in Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima.[5] The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2011 and went on to screen at festivals including BFI London Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival, DocNYC, and at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded both the Women In Film National Geographic All Roads Award and the Short Film Jury Prize: Non-Fiction on the same day that its Academy Award nomination was announced.

Waste Land premiered at Sundance 2010 and is the first film ever to win the Audience Awards at both Sundance and Berlin, as well as more than 30 other festival awards, and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. On 3 December 2010, at the International Documentary Association Awards, presenter Morgan Spurlock handed Walker the Pare Lorentz Award and the Best Documentary Feature Award for WASTE LAND inside a garbage bag[6][7] Previously Walker had worn a black garbage bag to the New York theatrical premiere of WASTE LAND on 26 October 2010.[8] Waste Land is the uplifting story of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and a lively group of catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, who find a way from the world's largest garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro to the most prestigious auction house in London via the surprising transformation of refuse into contemporary art. It was released theatrically in the USA by Arthouse Films, in Canada and in the UK by E1 Entertainment, and in Australia and New Zealand by Hopscotch Films.

Four years earlier, Walker's film Blindsight had been among the fifteen films competing for the Academy Award nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category at the 79th Academy Awards.[9] Blindsight premiered at Toronto and won further Audience Awards at Berlin, Ghent, AFI and Palm Spring film festivals and nominations for Best Documentary at the 2007 Grierson Awards and British Independent Film Awards. It was released in theaters in several countries including and was short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Blindsight follows the emotional journey of six blind Tibetan teenagers who climb up the north side of Mt. Everest with their hero, blind American mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer, and their teacher, Sabriye Tenberken, who founded Braille Without Borders, the only school for the blind in Tibet. Both Waste Land and Blindsight won the Panorama Publikumspreis (Audience Award) at the Berlinale, making Walker the only filmmaker to have won the Audience Award at Berlin with two different films.

Devil's Playground, Walker's first feature documentary, examined the struggles of Amish teenagers during their period of experimentation (rumspringa). It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win awards at the Karlovy Vary and Sarasota film festivals, three Emmy Award nominations for Best Documentary, Best Directing and Best Editing and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Documentary.

Countdown to Zero, an exposé of the present-day threat of nuclear terrorism and proliferation, also premiered at Sundance 2010 a day after the world premiere of Waste Land – the first time a director has had two feature documentaries in one year at this festival. It also played in the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival before being released in the US by Magnolia Pictures, and being broadcast in the USA on The History Channel. In the UK it was released by Dogwoof, and in Japan it was released by Paramount and this release was postponed due to the disaster of 11 March. It was Executive Produced by Global Zero (campaign) and Jeff Skoll's Participant Media and contributed to the debate building to the ratification of the New START Treaty. Walker and her collaborators were nominated for 2010 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year[10] for raising public awareness and understanding of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons in the 21st century and helping mobilize support for practical steps to reduce those danger.

Walker's directing credits also include Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues, her first job after film school, for which she was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing.

She was named one of the "Top 25 New Faces In Independent Film" by Filmmaker, The Hollywood Reporter once called her "the new Errol Morris", and Variety has profiled her as a notable "Femme Filmmaker", praising her ability to connect with audiences.[11]

There have been two complete retrospectives of Walker's films, one at the DC Environmental Film Festival, and one at London's BFI Southbank as part of the "Made in Britain" season, both in 2012.

Music [edit]

While at NYU film school, Walker supported herself by DJing, and as a DJ she was featured as a cover story in Option and on the cover of issue No. 154 of The Wire.[12]

As a DJ she appeared frequently at the Soundlab and all over New York City as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Europe, performing mostly solo and also as a member of experimental illbient ensemble Byzar, for whom she also directed a suitably avant-garde video for the track "Phylyx" which opened MTV's AMP episodes 116, 122 and 124.[13]

With her friend Moby, Walker contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound, Sampling Digital Music and Culture[14] edited by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (The MIT Press, 2008).

She later used Moby's music for the soundtrack of her films Waste Land and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom and, instead of working with traditional film composers, she prefers to license and remix tracks by her favorite artists to create her films' scores.

Film awards [edit]

  • NOMINEE - Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series - BLUE'S CLUES, Daytime Emmy Awards 2001
  • NOMINEE - Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series - BLUE'S CLUES, Daytime Emmy Awards 2002
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, AFI DV Fest 2001
  • WINNER - Grand Prize Best Film - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, AFI DV Fest 2001
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Film - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, Sarasota International Film Festival 2002
  • WINNER - Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, Karlovy-Vary International Film Festival 2002
  • NOMINEE - Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction in a Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, News & Documentary Emmy Awards 2003
  • NOMINEE - Emmy Award for Outstanding Editing in a Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, News & Documentary Emmy Awards 2003
  • NOMINEE - Emmy Award for Best Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, News & Documentary Emmy Awards 2003
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary - DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, Independent Spirit Awards 2003
  • WINNER - Audience Award Panorama Publikumspreis for Best Film - BLINDSIGHT, Berlin International Film Festival 2007
  • WINNER – Audience Award for Best Film (tie) - BLINDSIGHT, American Film Institute AFI Film Festival 2006
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Documentary - BLINDSIGHT, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Film - BLINDSIGHT, Ghent Film Festival 2007
  • NOMINEE – Best Documentary - BLINDSIGHT, British Independent Film Awards 2006
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best World Cinema Documentary - WASTE LAND, Sundance Film Festival 2010
  • NOMINEE - Grand Jury Prize for Best World Cinema Documentary - WASTE LAND, Sundance Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award Panorama Publikumspreis for Best Film- WASTE LAND, Berlin International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Amnesty International Award - WASTE LAND, Berlin International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Film - WASTE LAND, Full Frame Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - HBO Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature - WASTE LAND, Provincetown International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best World Cinema Documentary - WASTE LAND, Maui International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Film - WASTE LAND, Paulinia Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Jury Award for Best Film - WASTE LAND, Paulinia Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Dallas International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award - WASTE LAND, Dallas International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Best Documentary Golden Space Needle Award - WASTE LAND, Seattle International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Durban International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Choice Best Film - WASTE LAND, Durban International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award - WASTE LAND, Durban International Film Festival 2010
  • NOMINEE - Peace Film Award - Unabhaengige - WASTE LAND, Filmfest Osnabrueck 2010
  • NOMINEE - Humanitas Award - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Humanitas Awards 2010
  • WINNER - Crystal Heart Best Documentary Award - WASTE LAND, Heartland Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Human Spirit Award - WASTE LAND, EcoFocus Film Fest 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Feature Film - WASTE LAND, EcoFocus Film Fest 2010
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Jury Award - WASTE LAND, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Roger's People's Choice Award - WASTE LAND, Vancouver International Film Festival 2010
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Grierson Award for Best Documentary, London Film Festival 2010
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, British Independent Film Awards 2010
  • WINNER - Prêmio Itamaraty for Best Documentary Feature - WASTE LAND, São Paulo International Film Festival, 2010
  • WINNER - Special Jury Prize for Best Feature - WASTE LAND, Amazonas Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award - WASTE LAND, IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2010
  • WINNER - Audience Award - WASTE LAND, Stockholm International Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - IDA Pare Lorentz Award - WASTE LAND, International Documentary Association Awards 2010
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, International Documentary Association Awards 2010
  • WINNER - Grand Prix du Festival - WASTE LAND, International Environmental Film Festival 2010
  • WINNER - Jury Award - WASTE LAND, Frozen River Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Best of Festival - WASTE LAND, Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2011
  • NOMINEE - Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary of the Year - WASTE LAND, Cinema For Peace Awards 2011
  • WINNER - Best in Festival - WASTE LAND, Princeton Environmental Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Movies For Grownups Awards 2011
  • WINNER - Best Documentary Feature Film Audience Choice Award - WASTE LAND, Sedona International Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Keen Hybrid Life Filmmaker Grant - WASTE LAND, Boulder International Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Audience Award (tie) - WASTE LAND, Environmental Film Festival at Yale 2011
  • WINNER - Best Film, Investigation section - WASTE LAND, Levante International Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Best Editing, Investigation section - WASTE LAND, Levante International Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - KEEN Hybrid Life Filmmaker Grant - WASTE LAND, Boulder International Film Festival 2011
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - WASTE LAND, Sedona International Film Festival 2011
  • NOMINEE - WASTE LAND, London Film Awards 2012
  • WINNER - Audience Award, WASTE LAND, Freezone Belgrade Film Festival" 2011
  • WINNER - Green Fire Award, WASTE LAND, American Conservation Film Festival 2011
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary Feature - WASTE LAND, The 83rd Annual Academy Awards 2011
  • WINNER - Audience Award - WASTE LAND, Addis Ababa International Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Best Documentary Feature - WASTE LAND, Grande Premio do Cinema Brasileiro 2012
  • WINNER - Best Documentary Editing - Pedro Kos - WASTE LAND, Grande Premio do Cinema Brasileiro 2012
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary - COUNTDOWN TO ZERO, International Press Academy Satellite Film Awards 2010
  • NOMINEE - International Green Film Award - COUNTDOWN TO ZERO, Cinema For Peace Awards 2011
  • NOMINEE - Arms Control Person(s) of the Year, Writer-Director Lucy Walker and her collaborators on COUNTDOWN TO ZERO, Arms Control Association 2010
  • NOMINEE - Best Documentary Short - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, The 84th Annual Academy Awards 2012
  • WINNER - Short Film Jury Prize: Non-Fiction - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Sundance Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Women In Film National Geographic All Roads Award - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Sundance Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Polly Krakora Award for Artistry in Film – THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, DC Environmental Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Laurissilva Award for Best Film - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Madeira Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Audience Award for Best Short Film - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Florida Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Best Documentary - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Nevada City Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Best of the Fest - THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, Nevada City Film Festival 2012
  • WINNER - Audience Award - THE CRASH REEL, SXSW South By Southwest Film Festival 2013
  • WINNER - Rogue Award - THE CRASH REEL and career recognition honor, Ashland Independent Film Festival 2013
  • WINNER - Audience Award - THE CRASH REEL, Dallas International Film Festival 2013

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Academy Invites 176; Terrence Malick, Lucy Walker, Michel Hazanavicius and the Dardennes Make the Cut | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews". Indiewire. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2012. 
  2. ^ http://www.theweek.co.uk/22467/who-james-purnell
  3. ^ http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14131/1/generation-change-lucy-walker
  4. ^ http://jhfirefestival.org/schedule/beauty-and-the-beast-reflections-after-a-tsunami/directors-notes-the-tsunami-and-the-cherry-blossom/
  5. ^ "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, nominated for the 2012 Oscar Documentary Short". Cinema Without Borders. Retrieved 30 July 2012. 
  6. ^ Smith, Nigel M. (5 December 2010). "Honor Roll 2010 - “Waste Land” Director Lucy Walker". IndieWire.com
  7. ^ McNary, Dave (3 December 2010)"IDA honors 'Waste Land'". Variety.
  8. ^ "When a trashy chick is cool". The Fallout Girl blog. 27 October 2010.
  9. ^ Hernandez, Eugene (15 November 2006). "15 Films Selected for Oscar Short List in Doc Feature Category". IndieWire.com.
  10. ^ "Vote for the 2010 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year". armscontrol.org. 2010.
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ "The Illbient Ambience". [[The Wire (magazine)|]], #154. December 1996.
  13. ^ the AMP lists
  14. ^ Sound Unbound, Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Paul d. Miller (ed.). MIT Press, 2008.

External links [edit]

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