Kimberly Peirce

Peirce was born on September 8, 1967, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Sherry and Robert A. Peirce (originally Materazzi), who owned a construction company. When Peirce was three, she and her family moved to New York City, and at age eleven, they moved to Miami, Florida, where she eventually graduated from Miami Sunset Senior High School.{{cite web |url=http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/17610 |title=Miami Sunset Senior High School Profile |publisher=Publicschoolreview.com |date=2012-12-09 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=March 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130304083534/http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/17610 |url-status=live}}

While attending the University of Chicago, Peirce moved to Kobe, Japan for two years to work as a photographer and teach English.{{cite web |url=http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/kimberly_peirce.shtml |title=index magazine interview |publisher=Indexmagazine.com |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309154430/http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/kimberly_peirce.shtml |url-status=live}} She then moved to New York City to work as a photography intern for Time magazine under photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt. She returned to the University of Chicago to graduate with a degree in English and Japanese Literature.{{cite web |url=http://chicagolife.uchicago.edu/ssi/student/sl-10full.html |title=Chicago Life |publisher=Chicagolife.uchicago.edu |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322235711/http://chicagolife.uchicago.edu/ssi/student/sl-10full.html |archive-date=2012-03-22}} Peirce then enrolled at Columbia University to pursue an MFA in film.Stop-Loss press notes, Paramount Pictures While at Columbia, Peirce completed an experimental short film called The Last Good Breath, where two star-crossed lovers are caught amidst a world war in which one lover always lives and the other always dies. The short screened as part of the Leopards of Tomorrow program at the Locarno International Film Festival.{{cite web |date=2008-07-12 |title=filmbug |url=http://www.filmbug.com/db/37063 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208035314/http://www.filmbug.com/db/37063 |archive-date=December 8, 2010 |access-date=2012-12-18 |publisher=filmbug}}

While at Columbia working on an idea for her thesis film about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War,{{cite web |url=http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/kimberly_peirce_3334/ |title=Kimberly Peirce / The Kimberly Peirce Story | MovieMaker Magazine |publisher=Moviemaker.com |date=1999-11-15 |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070618104131/http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/kimberly_peirce_3334/ |archive-date=2007-06-18}} Peirce read a Village Voice article{{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/entertainment/col/srag/2000/03/09/peirce |title=Arts |work=Salon.com |date=March 9, 2000 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=August 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806105822/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/col/srag/2000/03/09/peirce |url-status=live}} about the life and death of Brandon Teena, a transgender man from Nebraska who was brutally raped and murdered when his gender history was discovered. Switching from her original thesis project, Peirce traveled to Falls City, Nebraska, where she conducted research, interviewed a number of people from the town, including Lana Tisdale (Brandon's girlfriend) and Lana's mother, and attended the murder trial of the two homicide suspects. The subsequent short film she made for her thesis in 1995 was nominated by Columbia faculty for a Princess Grace Award, and received an Astrea Production Grant.

After film producer Christine Vachon saw a version of the short, Vachon and Peirce began working on a feature film. In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal on the midnight shift, as a 35mm film projectionist and received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant.{{cite web |author=Hugh Hart |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Reel-Truth-gets-to-the-bottom-off-indies-3293840.php |title= 'Reel Truth' Gets to the Bottom of Indies |publisher=Articles.sfgate.com |date=2009-06-28 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528033830/http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-06-28/entertainment/17209355_1_ice-age-prehistoric-creatures-dinosaurs |url-status=live}} With help from the Sundance Institute's Filmmakers, Writers and Producers Labs in 1997, Peirce completed the feature film in 1999. Peirce said, “To make a movie like Boys, I had to be classically trained in film, but I also had to be schooled in terms of gender and sexual identity.”{{Cite web |date=2019-11-19 |title='Boys Don't Cry' director on how UChicago shaped her career {{!}} University of Chicago News |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/kimberly-peirce-how-uchicago-shaped-her-career |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=news.uchicago.edu |language=en}}

Upon its release, Boys Don't Cry became one of the most acclaimed and talked about films of the year, opening at the Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals and earning many honors, including the Best Actress Oscar, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit award and many other awards for the film's star, Hilary Swank. Chloë Sevigny was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, a Golden Globe and won the Independent Spirit Award, among many other awards for her role as Lana Tisdale.

The film received the International Critics prize for Best Film at both the London and Stockholm Film Festivals, the Satyajit Ray Foundation Award for Best First Feature at the London Film Festival, and was named "Best American Feature," by Janet Maslin. Peirce won honors as Best Debut Director from the National Board of Review and Best New Filmmaker from the Boston Society of Film Critics.{{cite web |url=http://oscarsijmen.freehostia.com/NBR90.htm |title=National Board of Review 1999 |last=Jimen |first=Oscar S. |publisher=freehostia |date=7 June 2018 |website=oscarsjime.freehostia.com |access-date=21 March 2019 |archive-date=July 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712223147/http://oscarsijmen.freehostia.com/NBR90.htm |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://bostonfilmcritics.org/past-winners-1990s/ |title=BSFC Winners 1999 |last=Hoffs |first=Benjamin |publisher=Boston Film Critics |date=12 December 1999 |website=bostonfilmcritics.org |access-date=21 March 2019 |archive-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717194814/https://bostonfilmcritics.org/past-winners-1990s/ |url-status=live}}

In 2005, inspired by the real-life stories of American soldiers, including her own brother, fighting in Iraq and coming home, Peirce began work on Stop-Loss. Peirce traveled the country interviewing soldiers about their experiences and worked with novelist and screenwriter Mark Richard to turn the research into a screenplay.

Released in 2008, Stop-Loss received positive reviews from critics. Peirce was honored with the Hamilton Behind the Camera True-Grit Directing Award as well as the Andrew Sarris Directing Awards for the film.[http://www.buzzine.com/2008/11/the-2008-behind-the-camera-awards/ The 2008 Behind the Camera Awards] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202232317/http://www.buzzine.com/2008/11/the-2008-behind-the-camera-awards/ |date=December 2, 2013 }}{{cite web |author=N'neka Hite |url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984814.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2564 |title=Kimberly Peirce set for Sarris Award |publisher=Variety |date=2008-04-29 |access-date=2012-12-18}} In association with the film, Peirce created a website called [https://web.archive.org/web/20100523010153/http://www.stoplossmovie.com/SoundOff/ SoundOff] and gave soldiers and their families cameras to record and share their stories and opinions. Shortly after the film's release, Peirce spoke before the National Press Club and members of Congress on behalf of Soldiers and the Stop-Loss Compensation Act, which financially compensated soldiers for multiple tours of duty served because of the stop-loss policy.{{cite web |url=http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/07/military_stoploss_Senate_071008w/ |title=Director campaigns for stop-loss payments – Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq |publisher=Air Force Times |access-date=2012-12-18}} The measure subsequently passed.{{cite web |url=https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/rep-walter-jones-r-n-c-talks-with-colby-buzzell-an-iraq-news-photo/99625224/ |title=Stop-Loss Compensation Act |last=Williams |first=Tom |publisher=Getty Images |date=10 July 2008 |website=gettyimages.co.uk |access-date=21 March 2019 |archive-date=March 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320205925/https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/rep-walter-jones-r-n-c-talks-with-colby-buzzell-an-iraq-news-photo/99625224 |url-status=live}}

Much of the inspiration for her two films was said to come from her love of The Godfather: "It showed me that I can take that love of the gangster movie and I can screen it through a family drama. In both my movies family is really important, violence is really important. I'm really interested in the psychological and the authentic portrayal of violence—particularly violence that comes out of emotions. Before The Godfather, I don't know that you could have such a violent psychological film that was that broadly entertaining."Peirce, Kimberly. Interview by Robert K. Elder. The Film That Changed My Life. By Robert K. Elder. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. N. p105. Print.

Peirce directed a remake of the 1976 horror film Carrie, which was released on October 18, 2013. An adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name, it starred Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead role, with Julianne Moore and Ansel Elgort in supporting roles.

The film won the 2014 People's Choice Award for Favorite Horror Movie.{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/peoples-choice-awards-2014-list-of-winners/ |title=People's Choice Awards 2014: List of winners |access-date=2018-09-19 |language=en |archive-date=September 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920083912/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/peoples-choice-awards-2014-list-of-winners/ |url-status=live}} It grossed at $35,266,619 in the US and Canada and at $84,790,678 worldwide.{{Citation |last=Peirce |first=Kimberly |title=Carrie |date=2013-10-18 |type=Drama, Horror, Thriller |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1939659/?ref_=tt_mv_close |access-date=2024-03-11 |others=Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Gabriella Wilde |publisher=Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Screen Gems, Misher Films}}

Kimberly Peirce has directed episodes of John Ridley's American Crime, AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and Turn, WGN's Manhattan, Bill Broyle's A&E History Channel's Six, Joey Soloway's I Love Dick, Justin Simien's Dear White People,Starz' P-Valley, Game of Silence, Halt and Catch Fire, and Kidding.

On February 16, 2011, it was announced that Peirce would direct the crime thriller The Knife,{{cite web |url=http://guylawson.com/articles02.html |title='Inside Man' by Guy Lawson |publisher=Guylawson.com |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514062823/http://guylawson.com/articles02.html |archive-date=2012-05-14}} about two men from opposite sides of the law who must overcome their mistrust of one another and risk their lives in order to infiltrate the organization of a ruthless gang leader threatening to spread armed violence across Los Angeles and the urban centers of America.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2011/02/universal-sets-kim-peirce-for-los-angeles-gang-informant-drama-the-knife-106945/ |title=Universal Sets Kim Peirce For Los Angeles Gang Informant Drama 'The Knife' |author=Fleming, Mike Jr. |date=February 16, 2011 |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=April 17, 2020 |archive-date=October 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031022002/https://deadline.com/2011/02/universal-sets-kim-peirce-for-los-angeles-gang-informant-drama-the-knife-106945/ |url-status=live}} Peirce was also in negotiations to direct and executive-produce The Enclave, a limited series for USA Network written by Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton (Mad Men).{{cite web |last=Andreeva |first=Nellie |url=https://deadline.com/2011/05/usa-unveils-development-slate-of-7-dramas-5-comedies-eyes-daily-talk-show-127543/ |title=USA Unveils Development Slate Of 7 Dramas & 5 Comedies, Eyes Daily Talk Show |website=Deadline Hollywood |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127103031/http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/usa-unveils-development-slate-of-7-dramas-5-comedies-eyes-daily-talk-show/ |url-status=live}}

Peirce co-wrote the script for Silent Star, a murder mystery about the 1922 death of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor and the scandals that nearly destroyed the film industry. However, the project stalled.{{cite web |last=Valby |first=Karen |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20186642,00.html |title='War and Peirce' by Karen Valby, Entertainment Weekly, March 28, 2008 |publisher=Ew.com |date=2008-03-28 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=December 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234206/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20186642,00.html |url-status=dead}}

Peirce is set to direct a new Amazon movie titled This is Jane. The storyline is about an activist in Chicago who is unsatisfied with the state of health services available in the US during the 1960s who forms a group that provides education and counseling for women seeking abortions.{{cite web |title=This Is Jane: Plot |website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6866108/plotsummary/ |access-date=2024-03-11 |language=en-US}}

{{BLP unreferenced section|date=July 2021}}

Peirce is a founding member of ReFrame, an industry-wide effort to end discrimination against women and people of color in Hollywood as well as the head of the Diversity Committee for Directors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She gave the 2014 Yale Transgender Week keynote, the 2015 Outfest keynote, and the 2016 AFI Keynotes, and spoke at the 2017 Women's March in Park City. She received the GLAAD Media, Lambda Legal Defense, People for the American Way, Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and the 2013 OUTFEST Career Achievement Awards. In 2018, she was honored with a Women in Film award for her activism.

Peirce is Jewish and genderqueer.{{Cite web |last=Dry |first=Jude |date=2019-12-12 |title=As 'Boys Don't Cry' Joins National Film Registry, Kimberly Peirce Addresses Its Complicated History |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/12/kimberly-peirce-interview-boys-dont-cry-transgender-1202196536/ |access-date=2020-06-15 |website=IndieWire |language=en |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613194425/https://www.indiewire.com/2019/12/kimberly-peirce-interview-boys-dont-cry-transgender-1202196536/ |url-status=live}} In 2008, she married Evren Savci,{{Cite web |title=Evren Savci |url=https://www.famousfix.com/topic/evren-savci |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=FamousFix.com}} who is a queer feminist and Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University.{{Cite web |title=Evren Savci {{!}} Yale University - Academia.edu |url=https://yale.academia.edu/EvrenSavci/CurriculumVitae |access-date=2024-03-17 |website=yale.academia.edu}}

Short film

Feature film

Television

• This Film Is Not Yet Rated – Peirce talks about the trouble Boys Don't Cry had with the MPAA, particularly the censoring of the sex scenes. Peirce was frustrated over the fact that the MPAA wanted the sex scene between Brandon and Lana removed but were satisfied with the overall brutality and violence in the murder scene.Dick, Kirby (director). (2006). This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Motion Picture (DVD). IFC Films
• Raging Bull – 30th Anniversary Release, Special Features{{cite web |publisher=IndieWire |title=dvd review: STILL RAGING |author=Maltin, Leonard |author-link=Leonard Maltin |date=January 12, 2011 |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2011/01/dvd-review-still-raging-179154/ |access-date=April 17, 2020 |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220182830/http://www.indiewire.com/2011/01/dvd-review-still-raging-179154/ |url-status=live}}
• Chinatown – Centennial Collection DVD, Special Features{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodpreviews.com/chinatown-centennial-collection-exclusive-exclusive-dvd-clip-film.html |title=Chinatown (Centennial Collection) Exclusive – Chinatown (Centennial Collection) Movie Exclusive – Exclusive for Chinatown (Centennial Collection) – Exclusive DVD Clip: The Film |publisher=Hollywoodpreviews.com |date=2009-10-06 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602210605/http://www.hollywoodpreviews.com/chinatown-centennial-collection-exclusive-exclusive-dvd-clip-film.html |url-status=live}}
• The Godfather – The Coppola Restoration, Special Features, "The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't"{{cite web |url=http://www.dvdmg.com/godfatherrestoredbonus.shtml |title=The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration – Bonus Material |publisher=Dvdmg.com |date=2008-09-23 |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=February 4, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204005757/http://www.dvdmg.com/godfatherrestoredbonus.shtml |url-status=live}}
• Queer for Fear – 2022 television mini-series includes interviews with Peirce{{cite web |url=https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/shudder-gay-horror-queer-for-fear-bryan-fuller-1234769007/ |title=Shudder's Gay Horror Series 'Queer for Fear' Proves We've Been Here All Along |last=Dry |first=Jude |date=October 5, 2022 |website=IndieWire |access-date=May 15, 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13639222/ |title=Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror |author= |date=2022 |website=IMDb.com |access-date=May 15, 2023}}

• Second place, Canada International Film Festival – The Last Good Breath
• Golden Award, Experiment Division, Chicago International Film Festival – The Last Good Breath
• First place, Suffolk Film Festival
• Best Debut Director – National Board of Review
• Best New Filmmaker – Boston Society of Film Critics
• Young Hollywood Best Director and Best Screenwriter Awards{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000717/2000 |title=Young Hollywood Award |website=IMDb |access-date=4 May 2015 |archive-date=January 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111020323/http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000717/2000 |url-status=live}}
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Award, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay{{cite web |url=http://www.lvfcs.org/lvfcs/1999.html |title=Award listings |publisher=Lvfcs.org |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302235125/http://www.lvfcs.org/lvfcs/1999.html |archive-date=2012-03-02}}
• Satyajit Ray Award, 1999{{cite web |url=http://www.satyajitray.org.uk/content/blogcategory/8/17/ |title=The Satyajit Ray Foundation – Previous winners |publisher=Satyajitray.org.uk |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309061152/http://www.satyajitray.org.uk/content/blogcategory/8/17/11/11/ |archive-date=2012-03-09}}
• London Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize{{cite web |url=http://www.superiorpics.com/kimberly_peirce/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203055443/http://www.superiorpics.com/kimberly_peirce/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2013 |title=The Kimberly Peirce Picture Pages |publisher=Superiorpics.com |access-date=2012-12-18}}
• Stockholm Film Festival, Best Screenplay and FIPRESCI Prize
• St. Louis International Film Festival, Audience Choice Award
• Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Award, Best Limited Release{{cite web |url=http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/Archives/CS22276/Boys-Don-t-Cry.aspx?tab=awards |title=Movie Archive – Boys Don't Cry |publisher=Cineplex.com |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319234104/http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/Archives/CS22276/Boys-Don-t-Cry.aspx?tab=awards |archive-date=2012-03-19}}
• Lambda Legal Liberty Award{{cite web |url=http://www.gaytoday.com/garchive/events/050400ev.htm |title=Top Story |publisher=Gay Today |access-date=2012-12-18 |archive-date=September 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928070159/http://www.gaytoday.com/garchive/events/050400ev.htm |url-status=live}}
• Hamilton Behind-the-Camera Directing Award
• Andrew Sarris Directing Award
• In 2019, Peirce's film Boys Don't Cry was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Andrew R. |date=December 11, 2019 |title=See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks |url=https://time.com/5747503/national-film-registry-2019-additions/ |magazine=Time |location=New York, NY |access-date=December 11, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026041943/https://time.com/5747503/national-film-registry-2019-additions/ |url-status=live}}

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb name|5303|Kimberly Peirce}}
• [https://archive.today/20121129231953/http://kimpeircefan.blogspot.de/ Unofficial Kimberly Peirce Fan Site]
• [https://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/10998/kimberly-peirce Literature on Kimberly Peirce]
• [https://archive.today/20081221224231/http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/7/10/1367/66469/ Kimberly's interview with The Young Turks]

{{Kimberly Peirce}}

{{National Board of Review Award for Best Directorial Debut}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peirce, Kimberly}}

Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people

Category:American LGBTQ film directors

Category:American LGBTQ screenwriters

Category:American non-binary entertainers

Category:American non-binary artists

Category:American non-binary writers

Category:Artists from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni

Category:Film directors from Pennsylvania

Category:Jewish American screenwriters

Category:LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania

Category:Non-binary directors

Category:Non-binary screenwriters

Category:Non-binary Jews

Category:University of Chicago alumni