Joan Micklin Silver

Joan Micklin Silver (May 24, 1935 – December 31, 2020) was an American director of films and plays, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Omaha, Silver moved to New York City in 1967 where she began writing and directing films. She is best known for her debut film Hester Street and the romantic comedy Crossing Delancey (1988).

Early life and education Joan Micklin was born on May 24, 1935, in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Doris (Shoshone) and Maurice David Micklin, who operated the family-founded lumber company. Her parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1956. They had three daughters, and remained married until his death in 2013. before she started her career in film. In the 1960s, she began writing scripts for children's educational films produced by Encyclopædia Britannica and the Learning Corporation of America, for which she directed three short films: The Case of the Elevator Duck, The Fur Coat Club, and The Immigrant Experience: The Long Long Journey.

She reflected in one interview that the barriers to women's entry into filmmaking were so steep in the early 1970s that "I had absolutely no chance of getting work as a director." In a 1979 American Film Institute interview, she quoted a studio executive who told her bluntly, "Feature films are very expensive to mount and distribute, and women directors are one more problem we don’t need." and produced by Midwest Films, a company Silver founded with her husband. Raphael grew motivated to become involved with her film career out of frustration with the opportunities he saw her being denied. Hester Street received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for actress Carol Kane. The success of Hester Street allowed the Silvers to begin work on Joan's next project, the 1977 film Between the Lines.

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), originally released as Head over Heels, was less of a triumph. United Artists, the major studio that produced Chilly Scenes, changed the film's name and edited in a happy ending, suggesting that "market research" justified the change in title.

In a 1989 interview, Silver identified the films Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Presenting Lily Mars (1943), and Song of the Islands (1942) as early influences. She also noted that, while she admired the work of François Truffaut, she felt an affinity with Satyajit Ray.

Silver died of vascular dementia at her home in Manhattan on December 31, 2020, at age 85.

Filmography (director)The Immigrant Experience: The Long Long Journey (1972 short)The Case of the Elevator Duck (1974 short)Hester Street (1975) Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976 TV film) 1977 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards - New Generation Award 1977: Berlin International Film Festival - Interfilm Award/Otto Dibelius Film Award for Between the Lines 1985: Locarno International Film Festival - second prize for Finnegan Begin Again''