100 Women We Love: Cheryl Furjanic

We are thrilled to present the 2013 list of 100 Women We Love – Including…

Admittedly, Cheryl Furjanic has never attempted diving or synchronized swimming—but she sure knows how to make a film. Sync or Swim, her 2008 feature documentary about the Olympic synchronized swimming team, received numerous awards, including a Billie Award for Journalism from the Women’s Sports Foundation. In 2002, her queer comedy film Bar Talk was broadcast on the PBS/WNET series Reel New York and screened at more than 60 film festivals worldwide. Besides teaching documentary production at NYU for over a decade, Furjanic also consults with filmmakers, artists and television producers on crowd funding, fan relationships and audience-building. “There is more LGBTQ representation in media today than I ever could’ve dreamed. But I think there are still too few stories about our LGBTQ history and too few positive portrayals of LGBTQ people in media,” she says of her latest upcoming documentary Back on Board, which explores the career and legacy of four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis. “The fact that this history is rarely taught in schools makes this film an important educational tool for teaching audiences about our once-invisible history.” Back on Board springboards into theaters in 2014 – here’s to another big splash for Furjanic. –QW


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