Joan Micklin Silver, Director of âCrossing Delancey,â Dies at 85
She broke barriers for women, directing seven feature films, including âHester Streetâ and âBetween the Lines,â as well as TV movies.
Joan Micklin Silver in the late 1970s while filming an adaptation of the Ann Beattie novel “Chilly Scenes of Winter.” She had a love-hate relationship with movie studios.Credit.United Artists, via Photofest
Published Jan. 1, 2021Updated Jan. 4, 2021
Joan Micklin Silver, the filmmaker whose first feature, âHester Street,â expanded the marketplace for American independent film and broke barriers for women in directing, died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.
What s it about? An adaptation of the eponymous song by Renato Russo, a famous Brazilian singer and composer. After doing time in jail for killing the cop who murdered his father, Joao (Boliveira) heads for Brasilia where a distant cousin from Argentina helps him get a start as a carpenter s apprentice - as long as he sidelines as a drug dealer. He falls in love with Maria Lucia (Valverde), the daughter of a senator, who wants Joao to stop dealing, but his rival Jeremiah ensures that Joao has no hope but to stay in the game.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand