about director alison Klayman
Alison Klayman is an award-winning director who makes movies about some of the most prominent people and stories of our time. Big issues, big stakes, and major historical events crisscross her films, even while she brings viewers into these worlds with a singularly intimate and humorous touch. AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY showed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei hanging out with his cats at his Beijing studio and also getting assaulted by police for his activism. It was awarded with a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and put Alison on the NYT’s list of 20 Directors to Watch. JAGGED drew from Alanis Morrisette’s personal video archive to explore what it was like to become a musical sensation at the age of 21. In THE BRINK , Alison followed rightwing strategist Steve Bannon as he tried to build a coalition of far-right radicals in the US and Europe. In his NYT Critic’s Pick review, A.O. Scott praised the film as “unnervingly entertaining…horror alternates with grim comedy.”
Her films have been shortlisted for an Academy Award and have received multiple prizes, including from the Sundance Film Festival, the Peabody Awards and the duPont-Columbia Awards. Her Netflix Original film TAKE YOUR PILLS was an international hit, while WHITE HOT was the most-watched film on Netflix’s platform when it was released. Her most recent feature, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, spotlighted the New York Liberty over a season on the cusp of the team and the WNBA going mainstream in US sports. It had repeat broadcasts on ESPN after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
While she is known for the breadth of her work and ability to make entertaining films on a wide range of stories, one subject she does like to return to is films about artists. In addition to Ai Weiwei and Alanis Morissette, Alison directed and shot THE 100 YEARS SHOW, an affecting profile of the Cuban-American painter Carmen Hererra who became a late-in-life sensation in her 90s, and captured Japanese florist Azuma Makoto in FLOWER PUNK as he sent his extreme flower sculptures to the bottom of the ocean and beyond the earth’s atmosphere. She has also served as an executive producer on several award-winning films, including the Oscar-shortlisted documentaries HOOLIGAN SPARROW and ON HER SHOULDERS.
Alison got her start in radio journalism and has contributed radio commentaries for NPR's "All Things Considered." Alison graduated from Brown University in 2006 with an honors B.A. in History and one winning intramural basketball season. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Hebrew and is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and BAFTA.
Alison on
The Colbert Report:
Select Awards and Honors:
Filmmaker Magazine "25 New Faces of Independent Film"
Sundance Creative Producing Lab Fellow
Peabody Award
George Polk Award
Sundance Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance
Nantucket Film Festival - Best Storytelling in a Documentary
Directors Guild of America - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (nominated)
Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award
Cinema Eye Honors - Best Production, Best Debut Feature (nominated)
Academy Awards - Shortlisted for Best Documentary feature (2013)
20 Directors to Watch - New York Times
7 People Under 30 Changing Our World - Fast Company
Alliance of Women Film Journalists EDA Award - Outstanding Achievement By A Woman In The Film Industry National Board of Review - Top Five Documentaries of 2012
ARTINFO 30 Under 30
Elle Magazine "Fresh Makers" - Art world power players under 35
Forward 50 - Annual list of influential American Jews
New York Times Critics' Pick
Top Ten Films of the Year, New York Magazine
News & Documentary Emmy Awards - Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming; Editing (2 nominations)
RBC's Emerging Storytellers - New Voices! Reading Series - IFP Independent Film Week
Vimeo Staff Pick
Short of the Week
Berlinale Talents Program
Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short - Heartland Film Festival
Winner, International Short Film Competition - Austin Polish Film Festival
Best Documentary Short - Ashland Independent Film Festival
Best Documentary Short - RiverRun International Film Festival (Academy-Qualifying)
Best Documentary Short - Ozark Foothills FilmFest
Best Documentary Short, Best Editing - DocUtah
SHOOT Online Spot of the Week
Gold Telly - Non-Broadcast, General-Social Responsibility
Silver Telly - General – Documentary: Individual for Non- Broadcast
D&AD Wood Pencil
Clio