Margaret Lazarus

Margaret Lazarus (born January 22, 1949) is an American Producer/Director known for her work in documentary film.

She and her partner, Renner Wunderlich, received an Academy Award in 1993 for their documentary “Defending Our Lives,” about battered women who were in prison for killing their abusers.

Biography

She was born in New York City, the daughter of a New York City teacher and a school administrator. She graduated with honors from Vassar College and received a Master’s Degree from Boston University. She began her career as a producer writer for a weekly public affairs program on the CBS affiliate in Boston.

In 1974 she co-founded with Mr. Wunderlich, the non -profit organization, Cambridge Documentary Films, Inc. and to date has produced and directed 20 films about social justice and women’s issues: Including films on rape, “Rape is” and “Rape Culture,” films on body image and media culture, “BirthMarkings,” “Killing Us Softly,” and “Still Killing Us Softly,” and films on labor history, “Eugene Debs and the American Movement.” In addition to the Academy Award, her films have won numerous awards and prizes and have been screened at festivals throughout the world. She is currently the Executive Director of Cambridge Documentary Films.

Throughout her career she has combined documentary filmmaking and political activism. In 1999 she produced and directed a series of short films on women, violence and human rights for UNIFEM, which were screen at the UN General Assembly. She is one of the co-authors of the chapter on Violence Against Women, in four of the editions of Our Bodies Ourselves.

As a Senior Fellow she taught “Producing Films for Social Change” at Tufts University from 2006-2009.

She has served as a member of the executive committee of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Filmography as Director and Producer

• 1974 “Taking Our Bodies Back: The Women’s Health Movement”
• 1975 “Rape Culture”
• 1977 “Eugene Debs and the American Movement”
• 1979 “Killing Us Softly”
• 1981 “Calling the Shots: Advertising Alcohol”
• 1982 “Pink Triangles: A film about Homophobia”
• 1984 “Hazardous Inheritance: Workplace Hazards to Reproductive Health”
• 1986 “Last Empire: US Intervention”
• 1987 “Still Killing Us Softly”
• 1988 “Not Just a Job”
• 1989 “Advertising Alcohol”
• 1991 “Life’s Work”
• 1993 “Defending Our Lives”
• 1998 “Strong at the Broken Places”
• 1999 “Women’s Rights, Human Rights”
• 2000 “Beyond Killing Us Softly”
• 2001 “The Strength to Resist: Media’s Impact on Women and Girls”
• 2003 “Rape Is”
• 2005 “Healing the Wounds" (producer only)
• 2010 “BirthMarkings”

External links

Cambridge Documentary Films