SILVER, JOAN MICKLIN

SILVER, JOAN MICKLIN (1935– ), U.S. film director. Born in Omaha, Nebr., to lumber dealer Maurice and Doris (née Shoshone) Micklin, both Russian immigrants, she studied at Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1956. After her marriage she moved to New York, where she worked on films for the Learning Corporation of American and wrote for the alternative newsweekly The Village Voice in the 1960s. She received a writing credit for one of the first films to address Vietnam veterans, Limbo (1972), and her first turn at directing was a documentary short The Immigrant Experience: The Long Long Journey (1972). While researching Immigrant she came across Yekl, a story about young Jewish newlyweds. The tale would serve as the basis for her first feature film, Hester Street (1975), which was created outside the Hollywood mainstream for $370,000 with her husband through their company, Midwest Films. Hester Street went on to gross $7 million, drawing resounding critical acclaim for its intimate historical portrayal of Jewish life in New York's Lower East Side, an Oscar nod for star carol kane , and a Writer's Guild nomination for best screenplay. Her next feature film, Between the Lines (1977), drew on her time at The Village Voice but moved the action to Boston. In 1988, Silver put a modern twist on Hester Street with the release of Crossing Delancy. Silver followed this with the films Lover Boy (1989), Big Girls Don't Cry … They Get Even (1992), and A Fish in the Bathtub (1999). Silver increasingly focused on directing intimate made-for-TV films, including the abortion-themed A Private Matter (1992) and the Warsaw ghetto tale In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997). Silver has also directed plays and musicals for theater, including the Randy Newman-inspired Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong (1982) and A … My Name Is Alice (1992). In 1995, she paired with leonard nimoy to direct the radio series Great Jewish Stories from Eastern Europe and Beyond for National Public Radio. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)