100 WOMEN WE LOVE 2008
Lily Tomlin’s extraordinary career as a funny lady bloomed on the TV show Laugh-In in 1969, the year of the Stonewall rebellion. Fittingly, she has woven feminism and LGBT life into her characters—the not-so-hardworking phone operator Ernestine, Violet Newstead in 9 to 5 and the numerous personas populating The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, the one-woman play written by Tomlin’s partner Jane Wagner, for which Tomlin won a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her turn as Linnea Reese in Robert Altman’s Nashville, played recurring roles on TV shows from Murphy Brown to The West Wing, and has won six Emmys, a Grammy, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1977. Tomlin, who has called Wagner the most influential person in her life and career, narrated 1995’s landmark LGBT documentary The Celluloid Closet. –KL
In no particular order…
Hats off to the 100 Women We Love, class of 2008 (in no particular order, ’cause we love ’em all!).
Kerry Weldon
New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival (NewFest) Administrative Director Kerry Weldon dedicates herself to work that will “reflect our lives—our real lives—not how everybody else sees us, but how WE see us.” NewFest celebrates 20 years this June. Weldon amassed an impressive amount of industry experience while acting as associate director of development at the Independent Feature Project, director of development at the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and during her four-year run as a member of the NewFest board. She has an insider’s perspective on filmmaking as a result of having written, directed and produced her own LGBT-themed film shorts (Transit, Quejios and Departure). Weldon has appeared on panels at the Tribeca Film Festival and South by Southwest, and has also juried at the Slamdance Games Festival, the International Emmys and the Director’s View Film Festival. –JB
In no particular order…
