Greta Schiller

Directing

Greta Schiller

Born

1954-01-01 (72)

Place of birth

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

27 titles

Greta Schiller is a film director and producer, known as an early pioneer of LGBTQ and feminist filmmaking. She is best known for her 1984 documentary Before Stonewall: Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community. In 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. She and her partner Andrea Weiss are cofounders of Jezebel Productions.

Known for

Before Stonewall poster
6.5

New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.

Before Stonewall

1984

Paris Was a Woman poster
6.4

Women (many of them lesbian) artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars. They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture, and most cherished a way of life quite different than the one left behind.

Paris Was a Woman

1996

Woman of the Wolf poster
8.0

This fairy-tale-like drama, based on a 1904 short story by American poet and feminist author Renée Vivien, tells two opposing versions of the same narrative: one told verbally by Pierre Lenoir, a male narrator at a Victorian dinner party; the other told visually through the behavior of an unnamed woman who meets him on a fantasy cargo boat. The intercutting of the two stories creates a tension between the different world views of the woman and the man.

Woman of the Wolf

1994

Age of Dissent poster
NR

Age of Dissent captures the yearlong battle to change British legislation about the gay age of consent. It includes a visit to Russia, where homosexuality was recently legalized.

Age of Dissent

1994

Greetings from Washington, D.C. poster
9.0

A short documentary about the First National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which took place on Sunday, October 14th 1979.

Greetings from Washington, D.C.

1981

International Sweethearts of Rhythm poster
7.5

From the Piney Woods School in the Mississippi Delta to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, this toe-tapping music film tells the story of the swinging, multi-racial all-women jazz band of the 1940s.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm

1986

Behind the camera

Before Stonewall poster
6.5

New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.

Before Stonewall

1984

Before Stonewall poster
6.5

New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.

Before Stonewall

1984

Paris Was a Woman poster
6.4

Women (many of them lesbian) artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars. They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture, and most cherished a way of life quite different than the one left behind.

Paris Was a Woman

1996

Paris Was a Woman poster
6.4

Women (many of them lesbian) artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars. They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture, and most cherished a way of life quite different than the one left behind.

Paris Was a Woman

1996

Woman of the Wolf poster
8.0

This fairy-tale-like drama, based on a 1904 short story by American poet and feminist author Renée Vivien, tells two opposing versions of the same narrative: one told verbally by Pierre Lenoir, a male narrator at a Victorian dinner party; the other told visually through the behavior of an unnamed woman who meets him on a fantasy cargo boat. The intercutting of the two stories creates a tension between the different world views of the woman and the man.

Woman of the Wolf

1994

Woman of the Wolf poster
8.0

This fairy-tale-like drama, based on a 1904 short story by American poet and feminist author Renée Vivien, tells two opposing versions of the same narrative: one told verbally by Pierre Lenoir, a male narrator at a Victorian dinner party; the other told visually through the behavior of an unnamed woman who meets him on a fantasy cargo boat. The intercutting of the two stories creates a tension between the different world views of the woman and the man.

Woman of the Wolf

1994

Woman of the Wolf poster
8.0

This fairy-tale-like drama, based on a 1904 short story by American poet and feminist author Renée Vivien, tells two opposing versions of the same narrative: one told verbally by Pierre Lenoir, a male narrator at a Victorian dinner party; the other told visually through the behavior of an unnamed woman who meets him on a fantasy cargo boat. The intercutting of the two stories creates a tension between the different world views of the woman and the man.

Woman of the Wolf

1994

Age of Dissent poster
NR

Age of Dissent captures the yearlong battle to change British legislation about the gay age of consent. It includes a visit to Russia, where homosexuality was recently legalized.

Age of Dissent

1994

Greetings from Washington, D.C. poster
9.0

A short documentary about the First National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which took place on Sunday, October 14th 1979.

Greetings from Washington, D.C.

1981

International Sweethearts of Rhythm poster
7.5

From the Piney Woods School in the Mississippi Delta to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, this toe-tapping music film tells the story of the swinging, multi-racial all-women jazz band of the 1940s.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm

1986

International Sweethearts of Rhythm poster
7.5

From the Piney Woods School in the Mississippi Delta to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, this toe-tapping music film tells the story of the swinging, multi-racial all-women jazz band of the 1940s.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm

1986

Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story poster
4.8

This documentary contains dramatized episodes about the lives of Erika and Klaus Mann, the brilliant children of German writer Thomas Mann.

Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story

2001

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women poster
3.3

This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women

1989

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women poster
3.3

This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women

1989

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women poster
3.3

This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women

1989

The Man Who Drove with Mandela poster
10.0

During the time of apartheid Nelson Mandela drove around South Africa in a limousine disguised as a chauffeur while organizing the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. But who was the distinguished looking white man sitting in the back seat? Meet Cecil Williams, an acclaimed gay white theatre director and communist.

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998

The Man Who Drove with Mandela poster
10.0

During the time of apartheid Nelson Mandela drove around South Africa in a limousine disguised as a chauffeur while organizing the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. But who was the distinguished looking white man sitting in the back seat? Meet Cecil Williams, an acclaimed gay white theatre director and communist.

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

1998

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love poster
NR

A lyrical film portrait of the once famous, and now, largely forgotten jazz vocalist Maxine Sullivan.

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love

1990

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love poster
NR

A lyrical film portrait of the once famous, and now, largely forgotten jazz vocalist Maxine Sullivan.

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love

1990

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love poster
NR

A lyrical film portrait of the once famous, and now, largely forgotten jazz vocalist Maxine Sullivan.

Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love

1990

The Five Demands poster
NR

In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The Five Demands revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.

The Five Demands

2023

Waking Up: A Lesson In Love poster
NR

When Susan tells Donna her dream, she finds it may not have been a dream at all, but a dream come true. After her first lesbian love, Susan begins a whirl of one night stands, leaving her partners wanting more. That is, until she falls for the mysterious Claudia, who outdoes Susan at her own game. Ultimately, a wiser more mature Susan finds her source of confidence and sexuality within her own strong woman centered self.

Waking Up: A Lesson In Love

1988

Greta's Girls poster
4.0

Greta's Girls lovingly depicts the quotidian moments in the domestic life of a lesbian couple and their dog in New York City. Greta's Girls is one of the first independent short films to focus on lesbians.

Greta's Girls

1978

Love Letters poster
NR

In the winter of 1977, Liz left her husband and four small children at home in Australia and came to New York City on a Fulbright award. There she met Kate, a paradigm-shifting feminist scholar, and they fell in love at first sight. Back then, it was a given that any lesbian mother was deemed unfit to raise her own children. But Liz’s newfound passion and self-discovery gave her the courage to fight for her kids, and for herself. In “Love Letters,” the traditional patriarchal values of the era, in which women and children were seen as possessions of men, collide head on with the newly energized, audacious lesbian feminist movement. The highly charged custody case uses courtroom line-drawing animation and verbatim testimony to tell a dramatic story of social ostracism and personal triumph. This is the story of a blazing lesbian love affair, begun in the revolutionary feminist ferment of 1970’s New York City and still going strong almost 50 years later.

Love Letters

2024

Love Letters poster
NR

In the winter of 1977, Liz left her husband and four small children at home in Australia and came to New York City on a Fulbright award. There she met Kate, a paradigm-shifting feminist scholar, and they fell in love at first sight. Back then, it was a given that any lesbian mother was deemed unfit to raise her own children. But Liz’s newfound passion and self-discovery gave her the courage to fight for her kids, and for herself. In “Love Letters,” the traditional patriarchal values of the era, in which women and children were seen as possessions of men, collide head on with the newly energized, audacious lesbian feminist movement. The highly charged custody case uses courtroom line-drawing animation and verbatim testimony to tell a dramatic story of social ostracism and personal triumph. This is the story of a blazing lesbian love affair, begun in the revolutionary feminist ferment of 1970’s New York City and still going strong almost 50 years later.

Love Letters

2024

No Dinosaurs in Heaven poster
NR

The documentary weaves together two strands: an examination of the problem posed by creationists who earn science education degrees only to advocate anti-scientific beliefs in the classroom; and a visually stunning raft trip down the Grand Canyon, led by Dr. Eugenie Scott, that debunks creationist explanations for its formation. These two strands expose the fallacies in the "debate," manufactured by anti-science forces, that creationism is a valid scientific alternative to evolution.

No Dinosaurs in Heaven

—

The Land of Azaba poster
7.5

A documentary about efforts to restore and maintain biodiversity in Campanarios de Azaba Nature Reserve in Western Spain.

The Land of Azaba

2020