Donna Deitch

Donna Deitch (born June 8, 1945, San Francisco, California) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and actor best known for her 1985 film Desert Hearts. The movie was the first feature film to "de-sensationalize lesbianism" by presenting a lesbian romance story with positive and respectful themes.

Career

Deitch segued from documentary filmmaker to producing and directing Desert Hearts, the landmark hit of the 1985 Telluride and Toronto International film festivals, and the 1986 Sundance Film Festival. The film was picked up for worldwide distribution by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Shortly after seeing the film, Oprah Winfrey hired Deitch to direct the Emmy-nominated four-hour miniseries The Women of Brewster Place.

After the success of Brewster Place, Deitch directed four pilots, three of which were picked up for series, including Second Noah. She has directed numerous episodes of one-hour dramas including NYPD Blue, ER, Murder One, Law and Order: SVU, EZ Streets, The Visitor, Dragnet, Crossing Jordan, Heroes, Private Practice, and others. She directed the pilot episode of The N's South of Nowhere.

She directed Prison Stories: Women on the Inside for HBO; Showtime's The Devil's Arithmetic starring Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy, and Common Ground, written by Terrence McNally, Paula Vogel, and Harvey Fierstein (also for Showtime).

Deitch directed, photographed, and edited Angel On My Shoulder, a feature-length documentary about the experience of her best friend, actress Gwen Welles (Nashville), dying of cancer. The film won the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary at the 1998 Chicago International Film Festival.

In a 2008 interview, she said she was working on obtaining financing for Blonde Ghost, a screenplay adapted from Stella, the 1992 non-fiction book by Peter Wyden about Stella Goldschlag, which takes place in Berlin during World War II. That same year, Deitch said that she was writing a sequel to Desert Hearts which would be set "in NYC in the late 60s".

Personal life

Deitch is openly lesbian. Her partner is writer Terri Jentz.

Filmography

Films

Actor

Television

Accolades

See also

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

References

External links

• Official website
• Donna Deitch at IMDb
• Donna Deitch Blog (archived March 8, 2012)
• 'Angel On My Shoulder' (Documentary Feature) at Donna Deitch website (archived May 17, 2010)

1. Desert Hearts
2. List of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes (seasons 1–19)
3. Criminal Passion
4. List of NYPD Blue episodes
5. Deitch
6. Common Ground (2000 film)
7. List of ER episodes
8. Murder One (TV series)
9. ER season 1
10. The Devil's Arithmetic (film)
11. Desert of the Heart
12. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 12
13. I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked (Grey's Anatomy)
14. List of Private Practice episodes
15. Private Practice season 3
16. Brittany Murphy
17. Bones season 1
18. The Street (2000 TV series)
19. Lesbian
20. Second Noah