Susan Seidelman
| Susan Seidelman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 11, 1952 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Residence | New York City |
| Education | Abington Senior High School (PA) |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Occupation | Director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Notable work | Smithereens, Desperately Seeking Susan, Making Mr. Right, Cookie, She-Devil, Gaudi Afternoon, Musical Chairs |
| Partner(s) | Jonathan Brett |
| Children | 1 |
Susan Seidelman (born December 11, 1952, Philadelphia) is an American film director, producer and writer. She came to prominence in the 1980s with Smithereens, the first American independent feature to be screened in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Her next feature Desperately Seeking Susan co-starred Madonna in her first film. She-Devil co-starred Roseanne Barr in her first feature-film role and Meryl Streep in her first starring comedic film role. Seidelman's subsequent films mix comedy with drama, blending genres and pop-cultural references with a focus on women protagonists, particularly outsiders. She also works in television and directed the pilot episode of Sex and the City.
Seidelman was raised in a suburb of Philadelphia, the oldest daughter of a hardware manufacturer and a teacher. She graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1969, and went on to study fashion and arts at Drexel University in Philadelphia. After taking a film appreciation class where she was inspired by the French New Wave, particularly the films of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, as well as Ingmar Bergman, she switched her focus to filmmaking.
Her first foray into movie-making at New York University resulted in a Student Academy Award Nomination for her satirical short film about a housewife's affair, And You Act Like One Too.
Seidelman earned an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and is an adjunct professor in the school's film department, overseeing students' thesis films.
In 1982, Seidelman made her feature-film debut with Smithereens, a bleak and darkly humorous look at New York City's downtown Bohemian scene of the 1980s. It was shot on 16mm for $40,000 on location, at times "guerrilla style" on the streets and in the subways of New York. Smithereens captured the look of the post-punk music scene and was the first American independent film to be selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. With recognition from Cannes, Seidelman became a member of the first wave of 80s-era independent filmmakers in the American cinema.
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