Mirrors to Windows: The Artist As Woman
'Mirrors to Windows’ takes you on an intimate but fast-paced journey, following an international cast of three generations of women artists as they forge their careers
n the heat of the London art scene. Moving the lens between art and life, revealing the dynamic and multi-faceted story of this enigmatic calling.
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Susan SteinbergDirector"Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter", "Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built", "Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes"
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Susan SteinbergWriter"Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter", "Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built", "Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes"
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Susan SteinbergProducer"Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter", "Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built", "Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes"
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Rebecca HardyExecutive Producer"The Past Is Now", "Invictus"
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Nick WatsonEditor"The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women"
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Project Type:Documentary
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Genres:Arts documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 18 minutes
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Completion Date:September 1, 2015
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Production Budget:50,000 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:HD Cam
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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In London: Royal Academy of Art Film Festival, Hamptons Take 2 doc festival.
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Saatchi Gallery - opening Champaigne Lives
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The National Portrait Gallery
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The Freud Museum London
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Hamptons Take 2 doc festival.
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Hauser & Wirth Somerset Uk in conjunction with Louise Bourgeoise exhibition
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Chapter Art Gallery Cardiff Wales in conjunction with Rose Wylie Exhibition
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Bath Film Festival
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LA Femme Festival
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Leeds international film Festival
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Centre for Arts - Geneva Switzerland
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Berlin International awards -awarded outstanding film
Susan Steinberg was born in Chicago and lived and worked for most of her life in New York before moving to London. She is an Emmy Award winning writer, director and producer best known for her work on PBS series American Masters. She has produced and directed documentaries on Paul Simon, Edward R. Murrow and the founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun.
Since moving to London in 2004, Steinberg was drawn to the international and overwhelmingly female art scene.
With her experience as a biographer, she set out to make a collective biography over the course of four years. The result is a film about ten extraordinary artists: Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman.
“Mirrors to Windows” aims to reach out to the creative spirit which resides in each of us, demystifying the elusive artistic practice and making it accessible to a wide audience. This film offers the voices of ten diverse, dynamic and inspirational role models – ten women, aged 22 to 82, who are making art work in the 21st century.
There have been many films on the male artist – a well-known protagonist, his archetype has been accepted, celebrated and embraced in popular culture as a romantic ideal, but we are literally missing half the picture. The story of the female artist, filled with the gritty realism of negotiations, commitments, compromise and determination to make their own path through the world, has not been properly told. “Mirrors to Windows” puts the lens between art and life to create an intimate collective biography spanning three generations and giving voice to this experience.
By casting women from 6 different countries, “Mirrors to Windows” reflects the 21st century multi-cultural world we live in today. Although set in London, the film could easily take place in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and beyond.
With “Mirrors to Windows”, my aim was to make an intimate film about an artist's life. A film that would leave the audience feeling that they were dropping into the artists' lives and studios. With ten main characters, this was not an easy task, yet those who have viewed the film in previews have commented on the film's ability to weave together different narratives becoming one multi-faceted voice, one universal woman – artist. This was accomplished partially by a long production schedule. I spent three years filming characters in their studios preparing for and setting up their exhibitions and developing close relationships with each and every one of them. To create an environment, that would lend itself to intimacy, I shot the studio material myself, which is something I had never done before. This one on one relationship became an essential aspect of the film.
My aim from the start was for 'Mirrors to Windows' to celebrate the rise in young women going to art schools and becoming artists. ( 70% of art students in london today are women) and to highlight the unique trajectory of a woman's career throughout the various stages of their life. Finally, it was important to me that the film not portray women as underdogs, but rather engage the audience with women who are empowered through their self-esteem, their commitment to their work, their vision and their highly personal approaches to what it means to be an artist and a woman and not to be confined in any one role.