Katy Chevigny
American documentary filmmaker (b.1968/1969)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Katy Gale Chevigny is an American documentary filmmaker. She has produced or directed more than 30 documentary films and won a number of awards for her work.
Katy Chevigny | |
|---|---|
| Born | Katy Gale Chevigny New York |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
| Occupation | Documentary filmmaker |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Notable work | Deadline (2004), E-Team (2014), Dark Money (2018) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award (for Deadline) |
Early life and education
Chevigny was born to Bell Gale Chevigny and Paul G. Chevigny. Her father is a law professor emeritus at NYU Law, where he headed its human rights clinic. Her mother is a literature professor emeritus at Purchase College and edited Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing (1999). Chevigny graduated cum laude from Yale University.[1]
Career
Chevigny was employed as a social worker in Chicago, and developed an interest in film. After deciding to change careers, she moved to New York City to start Big Mouth Productions in 1997 with a friend from college, Julia Pimsleur.[2] Pimsleur left the company in 2002.[2] As of 2004 Chevigny's partner in the company was Dallas Brennan.[2] By 2022, Marilyn Ness had joined the company.[3]
With Kirsten Johnson she co-directed Deadline (2004), which won a Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award.[4] The film, an examination of Illinois governor George Ryan's decision to commute the death sentences of everyone awaiting execution in the state, was purchased and broadcast on Dateline NBC, a rare example of a major commercial network acquiring an independent documentary.[5][6][7][a]
Chevigny directed Election Day which premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2007 and was broadcast on POV in 2008.[citation needed]
She co-directed with Ross Kauffman the feature-length documentary E-Team, which won Best Cinematography at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival[9] and was released as a Netflix Original in October 2014.[10] She produced the 2014 documentary 1971.[6]
She directed one of six segments of Hard Earned, which aired on Al Jazeera America in 2015 and won an Alfred I. duPont Award.[11]
With Kimberly Reed, Chevigny co-produced Dark Money (2018). PBS purchased distribution rights to the film, planning to include it in the docu-series POV.[12]
Recognition
Chevigny received a MacDowell Fellowship in 2008.[13]
Two films she co-produced have been nominated for an Emmy, in 2020 Becoming and in 2021 Dick Johnson Is Dead,[14] which also won the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling at Sundance in 2020.[15]
Film work
- Brother Born Again (2001)[6]
- Innocent Until Proven Guilty (2001)[6]
- Journey to the West: Chinese Medicine Today (2001)[4]
- Nuyorican Dream (2001)[6]
- Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America (2001)[6]
- Deadline (2004)[6]
- Arctic Son (2006)[6]
- Election Day (2007)
- The Teacher (2009)
- Camp Victory, Afghanistan (2010)
- (A)sexual (2011)[4]
- Pushing the Elephant (2011)[6][4]
- The Internet Must Go (2013)
- 1971 (2014)
- E-Team (2014)[16][17]
- Cameraperson (2016)
- Hard Earned, episode 2 (2016)[4]
- Trapped (2016)
- Sasaba (2017)
- Charm City (2018)
- Dark Money (2018)
- Don't Be Nice (2018)
- Becoming (2020)
- Dick Johnson Is Dead (2021)
- The First Step (2021)
- My Two Months in Harlem (2022)
Television work
Personal life
Chevigny married Dr. Jonathan Michael Chen in 2001;[1] they later divorced.
In July 2011, she married Jack Smith, a prosecutor working for the U.S. Department of Justice.[18] They have a daughter.[19] The couple lived in the Netherlands from 2018 until 2022, where Smith was working in The Hague, before they moved to Washington, D.C.[20][21]