Sande Zeig

{{Infobox person

| name = Sande Zeig

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| occupation = film director

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| domesticpartner = Monique Wittig

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Sande Zeig is an American film director and writer. She was the partner of late French feminist writer Monique Wittig.{{cite web|title=the Committee on LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona |url=http://lgbcom.web.arizona.edu/committee/committee_bios/bio_mwittig.html |access-date=January 2, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707090337/http://lgbcom.web.arizona.edu/committee/committee_bios/bio_mwittig.html |archive-date=July 7, 2007 }} She directed the 2000 romantic drama The Girl.

Biography

Sande Zeig is from New York City and is of Jewish heritage.{{cite web|url=https://azjewishpost.com/2016/bridging-cultures-topic-for-az-international-film-fest/ |title=Bridging cultures topic for AZ International Film Festival |publisher=Arizona Jewish Post |access-date=2020-12-05}} She studied theater in Wisconsin and Paris. In 1975, Zeig was living in Paris, studying mime and teaching karate, when she met the writer Monique Wittig.{{cite web|last=Krach |first=Aaron |author-link=Aaron Krach |title=More than "The Girl": Director, Distributor, Karate instructor Sande Zeig |work=indieWIRE |date=April 17, 2001 |url=https://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Zeig_Sande_010417.html |access-date=February 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051206004812/http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Zeig_Sande_010417.html |archive-date=December 6, 2005 }}

{{cite book

| last = Griffin

| first = Gabriele

| title = Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing

| publisher = Routledge

| year = 2002

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k2yd8lQwFtUC

| isbn =0-415-15984-9

| page = 287 }}

Zeig and Wittig co-wrote the French book Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes, which they both later translated into the English Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary. The work is a piece of metafiction, using its own form and contents to critique the male-centric viewpoints commonly used in encyclopedic dictionaries. The entries in their encyclopedia describe a fictional lesbian utopia, and in the original French edition, even nouns and pronouns which would normally have masculine endings are written with feminine endings instead.{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Kristine J. |date=1994 |title=Lesbianizing English: Wittig and Zeig Translate Utopia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26287426 |journal=L'Esprit Créateur |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=90–97 |issn=0014-0767 |via=JSTOR}} The entry for Sappho is one blank page, which scholar Jack Winkler describes as appropriate and refreshing given Sappho's poetry and reception.{{Cite journal |last=Winkler |first=Jack |date=1981-01-01 |title=Gardens of nymphs: Public and private in Sappho's lyrics |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.1981.9978532 |journal=Women's Studies |volume=8 |issue=1-2 |pages=65 |doi=10.1080/00497878.1981.9978532 |issn=0049-7878|url-access=subscription }} In the title of the French edition, Brouillon means rough draft. Scholar Kristine Anderson interprets this as a comment on how much more of the lesbian world exists than can be captured in the work, and more broadly, a reminder that all encyclopedias fail to capture a full portrayal of the world.{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Kristine |date=1991 |title=Encyclopedic Dictionary as Utopian Genre: Two Feminist Ventures |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20719031 |journal=Utopian Studies |volume=2 |issue=1/2 |pages=126 |issn=1045-991X}}

Zeig and Wittig collaborated on a theater piece called "The Constant Journey." They used distancing effects and subverted theater conventions to alienate the audience, allowing for more lesbian themes to come through in the work.{{Cite journal |last=Scanlon |first=Julie |date=November 1, 2010 |title=Getting The Girl: Wittig and Zeig’s Trojan Horse |url=https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2010/11/01/getting-girl-wittig-and-zeigs-trojan-horse |journal=Genders |via=University of Colorado Boulder}}

Zeig and Jeff Lunger were primary programmers for the New Festival for several years, choosing experimental films with the goal of attracting the attention and respect of the art-film industry. The board replaced them in 1993 with a selection committee, with the goal of choosing a new palate of films that would be more commercial and help the festival connect with sponsors and distributors.{{Cite journal |last=Gamson |first=Joshua |date=1996 |title=The Organizational Shaping of Collective Identity: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals in New York |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/684839 |journal=Sociological Forum |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=253–254 |issn=0884-8971}}

Zeig's 2000 film, The Girl is based on a short story by Wittig.{{Cite news

| last = Ferber

| first = Lawrence

| author-link =

| title = That Girl

| newspaper = The Advocate

| pages =

| date = June 5, 2001

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9GIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56

| access-date =January 16, 2010

| publisher = Here Publishing

}}

Her 2008 biographical film Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha follows the work of two Chinese healers, one of whom had previously treated Zeig's father.{{Cite news

| last = Arcayna

| first = Nancy

| author-link =

| title = Soul masters

| newspaper = Honolulu Star-Bulletin

| pages =

| date = September 20, 2008

| url =http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/09/20/features/story01.html

| access-date = June 13, 2009

}}

Zeig is the founder of New York City film distribution company Artistic License Films.{{Cite news

| last =Elley

| first =Derek

| title =The Girl Review

| newspaper =Variety

| date =October 16, 2000

| url = https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117788387.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

| access-date =August 19, 2007

}}

Wittig, Zeig's partner of many years, died on January 3, 2003.{{Cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=January 11, 2003 |title=Monique Wittig, 67; Leading French Feminist, Social Theorist and Novelist |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-11-me-wittig11-story.html |access-date=2025-06-07 |work=Los Angeles Times}}

Filmography

Central Park (1994)
The Girl (2000)
Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha (2008)
Apache 8 (2011)
Sister Jaguar's Journey (2015)
The Living Saint of Thailand: Venerable Mae Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta(2019)
Firelighters:Fire Is Medicine(2024)

Bibliography

Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary (Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes) — coauthored with Monique Wittig

References

External links

{{IMDb name|id=0954322}}
[http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm807.shtml Sande Zeig's film] [http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c815.shtml Apache 8] at Women Make Movies

Category:Film directors from New York City

Category:Jewish American feminists

Category:American feminists

Category:Lesbian feminists

Category:American LGBTQ film directors

Category:Lesbian Jews

Category:American lesbian writers

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:American women film directors

Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)

Category:Writers from New York (state)