Nancy Schwartzman
Encyclopedia
Nancy Schwartzman is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
director and producer. Best known for her activist work in sex-positive feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
and consent
Consent
Consent refers to the provision of approval or agreement, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration.- Types of consent :*Implied consent is a controversial form of consent which is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from a person's actions and the facts and...
, Schwartzman directed the 2009 documentary The Line which premiered at the International Women's Film Festival in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and plays festivals and colleges. She is the director of The Line Campaign, an interactive campaign known for breaking taboos with college youth, aimed at battling rape culture amongst college youth and opening up a dialogue about desire, consent and boundaries. The Line Campaign is supported by the Fledgling Fund and The Playboy Foundation Schwartzman has a new short documentary in the works, xoxosms (2011) about digital intimacy supported by the Cinereach
Cinereach
Cinereach is a nonprofit film funding organization in New York, NY, founded in 2006, which provides grants, awards, and an annual fellowship "to films from underrepresented perspectives." The organization also has partnerships with other film development organizations such as the Sundance...
Film Fellowship.
Personal life
Schwartzman was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. She attended Harriton High School
Harriton High School
Harriton High School is a public secondary school located in Rosemont, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania.Harriton is one of two high schools in Lower Merion School District; the other is Lower Merion High School. It used to be a comparatively small high school, containing 889...
and the Shipley School
The Shipley School
The Shipley School is a coeducational, independent, college-preparatory day school with approximately 835 students in pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade...
during her childhood.
In 1997, Schwartzman graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City with a BA in Art History and a minor in Film. As an undergraduate, she studied at Reid Hall
Reid Hall
Reid Hall is a complex of academic facilities owned and operated by Columbia University that is located in the St. Germain des Prés district of Paris, France. It houses the Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall in addition to various graduate and undergraduate divisions of over a...
in Paris, becoming fluent in French and made the Dean's List from 1995-1997.
She currently lives and works in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Work
Before becoming a documentary filmmaker, Schwartzman worked as a production assistant for Killer Films and received credit for Todd SolondzTodd Solondz
Todd Solondz is an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia", a reflection of his own background...
's Happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
and Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
' Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 British/American drama film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.Sandy Powell received another Academy...
.
In response to a spike in violent sexual assaults in NYC, Schwartzman began her activism as the founder of NYC - Safestreets.org in December 2005. The initiative was noted in the New York Times, New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, Village Voice, and others. Safestreets.org is Brooklyn-based neighborhood watch organization that provides maps to illustrate routes where sexual assaults have been reported. NYC-Safe Streets.org also partners with community businesses which agree to serve as "safe havens" for women who may feel fearful while walking alone.
"There was a spike in rapes reported in Brooklyn and I wanted to do something," explains Schwartzman. The maps and the safe haven storefronts are a concrete action in response to that."
Schwartzman was also a founding editor and Creative Director of heeb magazine from 2001, known for its satire and sardonic approach to reaching Jewish readers of all streams, but geared predominantly towards the urban, younger generation. She transformed public and private spaces to create sets for photography feature stories: “Love, Challah and Betrayal,” “Jewess,” and “The Passion” and set the aesthetic tone for the first six months of the magazine.
In 2001, she also worked as the lead officer of a $1.6 million dollar Jewish documentary film fund as the Program Officer for Media and Arts at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, NYC.