Judy Irola

Judith Carol Irola (November 23, 1943 – February 21, 2021) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. The third woman accepted into the American Society of Cinematographers, she was head of the cinematography department at USC School of Cinematic Arts for 15 years and held the Conrad Hall Chair in Cinematography there. Irola co-founded a National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians branch in San Francisco in 1969, and was a founding member of the short-lived Cine Manifest film collective in 1972.

Early life Judith Carol Irola was born in rural Fresno, California, on November 23, 1943. Her parents, Barbara and Johnny Irola, were sheep farmers, and her grandparents had emigrated to the United States in 1917 from the Basque region of Spain. She had two younger sisters, Jeanne and Barbara Jo. The three sisters would go to the Saturday matinees at the local movie theatre. She subsequently revisited this period in her 2010 documentary Niger '66: A Peace Corps Diary. Irola was cinematographer on Northern Lights, their first feature film. It won the Caméra d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and was praised for its cinematography. One critic likened Irola's work to Dorothea Lange's photography. She was not allowed to join the NYC IATSE local, and the NABET local only represented commercial (advertising) cinematographers. She shot items and documentaries for 60 Minutes, 20/20, the BBC, Channel 4 and Canal+ using her commercial union card. This would become a problem in 1986. IATSE noticed that Irola had worked on the film without a union card from them. They tried her, in her absence, and fined her $4,000. She fought them, and gained an amnesty but was still not permitted to join them. She was also appointed an associate professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Awards Caméra d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival for Northern Lights Women in Film Kodak Vision Award 1997 Women’s International Film & Television Showcase Cinematographer Award 2012 Nat Tiffen Award for Excellence in Cinematography Education 2014

Film and television credits As cinematographer: Song of the Canary (1978) Northern Lights (1978) Controlling Interest: The World of the Multinational Corporation (1978) Saturday Night Live: Schiller’s Reel. (1978) Eight films, including La Dolce Gilda and Don’t Look Back in Anger with John Belushi The Wobblies (1979) The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists (1979) The Willmar 8 (1980) Fundi: The Ella Baker Story (1981) Anarchism in America (1981) In the King of Prussia (1982) Vietnam: A Television History (1983) Working Girls (1986) The Uncompromising Revolution/Fidel at 60 (1988) Lifestories (1991) 9 part PBS tv series The Man Who Tried To Buy Hollywood: Giancarlo Parretti (1991) (First Prize Venice Film Festival) directed by Jean-Pierre Moscardo; The Glamorous Days of The Adlon Hotel (1995) (First Prize Bavarian Film Festival) directed by Percy Adlon

As a director: Cine Manifest (2006) - documentary Niger '66: A Peace Corps Diary (2010) - documentary The Sheepherder's Daughters (2014)