Joyce Chopra

Joyce Chopra (; born October 27, 1936) is an American film and television director and documentary filmmaker.

Early life and education Joyce Ann Kalina was born on October 27, 1936 in Queens, New York City to Abraham Kalina, a lawyer and future State Supreme Court Justice, and Tillie Kalina (née Ornstein), a teacher. Chopra has two brothers and was raised in a Jewish family in Coney Island and Sea Gate.

Chopra was educated at Abraham Lincoln High School, before studying Comparative Literature at Brandeis University. The club was the subject of the 2012 film For the Love of the Music, shown at the Boston International Film Festival.

Her own film career began with documentary filmmaking in 1963 and gained much recognition by feminist film scholars with her autobiographical documentary Joyce at 34 (released 1974). The film stars Chopra and examines the effect her pregnancy had on her filmmaking career; it also followed Chopra's labour with her daughter Sarah, as she became the first person to give birth live on television. The documentary received the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon award. The film explores the issues surrounding women when pursuing the creation of a family while also creating a professional career.

Her next documentary project was a trilogy of short films. Matina Horner: Portrait of a Person (1973) focused on the titular professor and president of Radcliffe College, Girls at 12 (1975) examined the transition of young girls into teenagers, and Clorae and Albie (1976) examines the lives of two young black women in Boston who have been best friends since childhood but are starting to drift apart on different paths.

Chopra transitioned into fiction film making around the mid-1980s after meeting and working with Tom Cole. One of their first collaborations was a PBS American Playhouse production Medal of Honor Rag in 1982.

Her first narrative feature-length film, Smooth Talk (1985), was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' 1966 short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", and was adapted by Tom Cole.

Personal life In 1961, Chopra married Amarjit Chopra. The couple later divorced. in 1969. Together Chopra and Cole had one child.

Independent Spirit Award for Best Film