Jan Oxenberg

{{short description|American film producer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jan Oxenberg

| alt = Jan Oxenberg

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1950}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, United States

| education = Barnard College,
California Institute of the Arts

| known_for = Feminist Lesbian Films,
Film Production

}}

Jan Oxenberg (born 1950) is an American film producer, director, editor, and screenwriter. She is known for her work in lesbian feminist films and in television.{{cite book |last= Wolf|first= Deborah Goleman|date= 1980|title= The Lesbian Community|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gpdBrw7t47oC&q=%22jan%20oxenberg%20is%22&pg=PA182|publisher= University of California Press|isbn= 9780520042483}}{{cite journal |last= Citron|first= Michelle|date= March 1981|title= The films of Jan Oxenberg: Comic critique|url= https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC24-25folder/JanOxenberg.html|journal= Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media|access-date= April 14, 2017}}

Career

Oxenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950.{{Cite web|url=https://voices.revealdigital.com/?a=d&d=EFGABHD19760301.1.3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------------1|title=The Lesbian Tide (1974) March-April, 1976 — Independent Voices|date=1974|website=voices.revealdigital.com|access-date=2019-10-02}}

She attended Barnard College for two years where she was active in the experimental college, a collaborative, co-living, and self-directed schooling experiment between Barnard and Columbia University starting in 1968.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhiZFpE77tkC|title=Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think About Sex and Politics|last=Rosenberg|first=Rosalind|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2004|isbn=9780231501149|location=New York City, New York|pages=277}} Oxenberg transferred to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and initially she studied feminist art with Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro, but later transferring into the CalArts film school. In 1972, Oxenberg was one of the many participants in Womanhouse, the first feminist art installation and performance art (specifically within the art pieces - Three Women, Birth Trilogy, Necco Wafers).{{Cite web|url=http://www.womanhouse.net/the-artists|title=Artists Womanhouse|website=WOMANHOUSE|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-02}}

In the 1970s, she was involved with ELF (education liberation front), a traveling educational resource, carrying information and books on liberation movements, racism, ecology and more. Around 1974, she was active in producing a radio series called "Lesbian Sisters" on KPFK Los Angeles.

She has also worked as a producer and writer on Pretty Little Liars. Other credits include Nothing Sacred, Cold Case, Kidnapped, In Plain Sight, and Chicago Hope.

Since 2013, Oxenberg has been adapting James Ellroy's memoir, My Dark Places for a screenplay and film production by Myriad Pictures.{{Cite web|url=https://www.powerupfilms.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52:jan-oxenberg&catid=8:honorary-board&Itemid=37|title=Jan Oxenberg|website=www.powerupfilms.org|access-date=2019-10-08|archive-date=2013-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111201550/http://www.powerupfilms.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52:jan-oxenberg&catid=8:honorary-board&Itemid=37|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2003/scene/markets-festivals/artisan-goes-to-dark-places-1117880883/|title=Artisan goes to 'Dark Places'|last1=Harris|first1=Dana|date=2003-02-21|website=Variety|language=en|access-date=2019-10-09}}

Personal life

Oxenberg is Jewish,{{cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/filmmakers-independent-north-american|title=Filmmakers, Independent North American|last1=Kaufman|first1=Deborah|date=27 February 2009|website=Jewish Women's Archive}} and openly lesbian.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-kJHa7KqnQ4C&q=Jan+Oxenberg+lesbian&pg=PA169|title=Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary|last1=Foster|first1=Gwendolyn Audrey|date=1995|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0313289727|page=87}}{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=ccom_papers|title=Women film directors and producers|last=Savage|first=Ann M.|date=2008|website=Digital Commons at Butler University|page=387|access-date=2019-10-01|quote=Jan Oxenberg's experimental short Home Movie (1972 ), frequently regarded as one of the first lesbian feminist films, details the filmmaker's life as a young girl encouraged to be feminine, contrasted with coming out as an adult.}} Oxenberg has been out as a lesbian since the early portion of the second wave feminist movement.{{Cite book|title=First Person Jewish|last=Lebow|first=Alisa|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2008|isbn=9780816643547|pages=111}} For many years, she dated musician Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"

|+Film

!Year

!Title

!Type

!Role

!Notes

1973

|Home Movie

|short film

|film director

|This film is regarded as one of the first feminist lesbian films and was shown at the Womanspace Gallery in 1973.{{Cite web|url=http://thewomansbuilding.org/timeline1.html|title=the Woman's Building, Timeline 1968-1973|website=thewomansbuilding.org|access-date=2019-10-02}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.otis.edu/old-ben-maltz-gallery/womans-building-history-timeline|title=Woman's Building: History Timeline|website=Otis College of Art and Design|language=en|access-date=2019-10-02|archive-date=2019-10-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002224918/https://www.otis.edu/old-ben-maltz-gallery/womans-building-history-timeline|url-status=dead}} It revisits old home movies but with a queer narrative.{{Cite web|url=http://pdome.org/1992/queer-subversion/|title=Queer Subversion – Pleasure Dome|website=pdome.org|access-date=2019-10-02}}

1974

|I'm Not One of 'Em

|short film

|film director

|

1975

|A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts

|

|film producer, film director, film editor

|{{Cite web|url=https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC24-25folder/JanOxenberg.html|title=The films of Jan Oxenberg by Michelle Citron|website=www.ejumpcut.org|access-date=2019-10-02}}

1975

|Films by Jan Oxenberg

|short film

|film director, film editor

|

1975

|Woman to Woman

|documentary

|sound

|

1986

|Rate It X

|documentary

|sound

|

1992

|Thank You and Good Night

|documentary

|film producer, film director

|This documentary film is centered around a portrait of Oxenberg's dying grandmother, and about facing death.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/a-vanished-film-you-should-see-jan-oxenbergs-thank-you-and-good-night|title=A Vanished Film You Should See: Jan Oxenberg's "Thank You and Good Night"|last=Brody|first=Richard|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2018-03-16|access-date=2019-10-02|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/29/movies/review-film-and-now-the-sunny-side-of-death.html|title=Review/Film; And Now, the Sunny Side of Death|last=Holden|first=Stephen|date=1992-01-29|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-10-02|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

class="wikitable"

|+Television

!Year(s)

!Title

!Type

!Role

!Notes

1997

|Relativity

|television series drama

|writer

|Oxenberg wrote the 1997 Relativity episode that featured the first kiss between two lesbian characters on American primetime television.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-01-11-ca-17429-story.html|title=When a Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss on 'Relativity'|last1=Lowry|first1=Brian|date=January 11, 1997|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=21 August 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.afterellen.com/tv/5580-relativity-and-the-first-lesbian-kiss-on-primetime-television|title="Relativity" and the First Lesbian Kiss on Primetime Television|last1=Warn|first1=Sarah|date=November 6, 2002|website=AfterEllen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222121522/http://www.afterellen.com/tv/5580-relativity-and-the-first-lesbian-kiss-on-primetime-television|archive-date=December 22, 2014|access-date=21 August 2019}}

1998–1999

|Chicago Hope

|television series drama

|film producer

|(3 episodes)

1999–2001

|Once and Again

|television series drama

|film producer, writer

|(43 episodes) She wrote for Once and Again, which had a pioneering storyline of a lesbian teenage couple.{{cite web|url=http://firstchoiceforlastplace.com/2010/12/21/once-and-again-no-buts-about-it/|title=Once and Again: No Buts About It|last1=Cody|date=December 21, 2010|website=First Choice for Last Place|access-date=21 August 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.kissingfingertips.com/home/2017/3/21/once-and-again|title=once and again|last1=Amazon|first1=Nancy|date=July 21, 2008|website=KissingFingertips|access-date=21 August 2019}}

2001

|The Education of Max Bickford

|

|film producer

|

2002

|Robbery Homicide Division

|

|film producer

|

2003

|Mister Sterling

|

|film producer

|(3 episodes)

2003–2004

|Cold Case

|television series police procedural

|film producer

|(22 episodes)

2006–2007

|Kidnapped

|

|film producer

|(12 episodes)

2008

|Long Island Confidential

|

|film producer

|

2011

|In Plain Sight

|

|film producer

|(2 episodes)

2013

|Pretty Little Liars

|

|film producer

|(3 episodes)

See also

References

{{Reflist}}