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Lucy Walker (director)

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For other people named Lucy Walker, see Lucy Walker (disambiguation).

Lucy Walker
Lucy Walker in February 2012
Alma materOxford University
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Occupation(s)Film director, writer, producer
Years active1998–present
Websitelucywalkerfilm.com

Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).

Film career

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Devil's Playground, Walker's first feature documentary, examined the struggles of Amish teenagers during their period of experimentation (rumspringa). It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Blindsight premiered at Toronto. It follows the journey of six blind Tibetan teenagers who climb up the north side of Mount Everest with blind American mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer and their teacher, Sabriye Tenberken, who founded the only school for the blind in Tibet, Braille Without Borders. Blindsight won the Audience Award at Berlin Film Festival, as did Walker's subsequent film Waste Land.

Waste Land focuses on Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and a group of catadores—pickers of recyclable materials—who transform recyclable materials from the world's largest dump in Rio de Janeiro into contemporary art sold at the most prestigious auction house in London. Waste Land premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Audience Award in documentary. Waste Land was released theatrically in the US by Arthouse Films, in Canada, in the UK by E1 Entertainment, and in Australia/NZ by Hopscotch Films. In addition to being nominated for an Academy Award, Waste Land won the top prize at the 2010 IDA Documentary Awards. [1]

Countdown to Zero, an exposé of the present-day threat of nuclear proliferation, also premiered at Sundance 2010. It also played in the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival, before being released in the US by Magnolia Pictures, in the UK by Dogwoof, and in Japan by Paramount.

Walker's 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom focuses on the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and its survivors' struggle to survive. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, and it went on to screen at festivals, including Sundance in 2012 where it won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking, Non-Fiction.[2]

Walker was inspired to make the 2013 documentary The Crash Reel when she met Kevin Pearce (snowboarder) at a retreat organized by David Mayer de Rothschild. The Crash Reel premiered at Sundance on 19 January 2013 as the Opening Night Gala film. The film chronicles the rivalry between Kevin and Shaun White, which culminates in Kevin's life-changing crash. Outside featured Lucy in a cover story, "Lucy Walker Will Change Winter Sports".[3] The Crash Reel won an audience award at South by Southwest and an Emmy Award.[4][5]

Walker's 2014 documentary The Lion's Mouth Opens focuses on filmmaker-actor Marianna Palka's attempt to discover if she has inherited Huntington's disease, the incurable degenerative disorder that took Palka's father. Nick Higgins worked with Walker as cinematographer for the documentary. Walker premiered The Lion's Mouth Opens at Sundance on 26 January 2014 and it went on to win Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking at the Cinema Eye Honors.

Bring Your Own Brigade which follows the aftermath of the Camp Fire (2018) had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 29 January 2021.[6]

Walker served as a producer on Why Did You Kill Me? directed by Fredrick Munk, which was released on 14 April 2021 by Netflix.[7]

How to Change Your Mind, a four episode docuseries directed with Alison Ellwood, premiered on Netflix in 2022. Based on the book of the same name by Michael Pollan, each episode explores a different psychoactive substance.[8]

Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, about the pioneering Nepali mountaineer Lhakpa Sherpa, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired for distribution by Netflix.[9][10][11] It debuted on Netflix on July 31, 2024.[12]

Walker's credits in television include directing over a dozen episodes of Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues, her first job out of film school, for which she was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing. Her content and commercial work includes directing "Project Daniel" for Intel, which was awarded an AICP Curator's Award and three Bronze Lions at the Cannes Festival of Creativity[13]

Walker was named one of the "Top 25 New Faces in Independent Film" by Filmmaker and called "the new Errol Morris" by The Hollywood Reporter. Variety has profiled her as a notable "Femme Filmmaker", praising her ability to connect with audiences.[14]

Filmography

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Select accolades

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Year Film Award Ceremony Result Ref.
2010 Waste Land Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (with Angus Aynsley) 83rd Academy Awards Nominated [16]
2011 The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) (with Kira Carstensen) 84th Academy Awards Nominated [16]

References

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  1. ^ "IDA honors 'Waste Land'". 10 December 2010. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  2. ^ "5 Things You Should Know About The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom". 11 March 2014. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Lucy Walker Will Change Winter Sports". 7 November 2013. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  4. ^ "SXSW Film & TV Awards Archive". sxsw.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  5. ^ "PBS And CBS Dominate News & Documentary Emmys". Deadline Hollywood. 30 September 2014. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  6. ^ Debruge, Peter (15 December 2020). "Sundance Film Festival Lineup Features 38 First-Time Directors, Including Rebecca Hall and Robin Wright". Variety. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  7. ^ Komonibo, Ineye (7 April 2021). "A Mother Uses Myspace To Track Down Her Daughter's Killer in New Netflix Doc". Refinery29. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  8. ^ White, Peter (16 June 2022). "Mind-Altering Drug Docuseries Lined Up At Netflix From Alex Gibney & Michael Pollan". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  9. ^ "Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa". Toronto International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  10. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (26 July 2023). "TIFF Announces Documentary Lineup, With Film On Louis C.K. Scandal, Plus Latest From Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, Lucy Walker, Roger Ross Williams". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  11. ^ Grobar, Matt (12 September 2023). "Netflix Lands 'Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa,' Documentary On First Nepali Woman To Conquer Mount Everest – TIFF". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 12 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  12. ^ "All the New Netflix Movies You Can Watch This Summer". Netflix. 1 May 2024. Archived from the original on 22 June 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Look Inside.™: Mick Ebeling | Intel". YouTube. 10 March 2014. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021.
  14. ^ Salemi, Michelle (30 September 2010). "Lucy Walker: Instructively engaging". Variety. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  15. ^ "Lucy Walker Directing Ibogaine Feature Doc 'Of Night & Light', Lands Secret Tribeca Slot". Deadline. 10 May 2023.
  16. ^ a b "The Official Academy Awards Database". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
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