Courtesy of Director/Producer - Judy Chaikin
In Part II of my
coverage on The Girls in the Band, I
bring to Interiors another Female
Interview Series, speaking with Girls in the Band Director, Judy Chaikin.
After interviewing Ms.
Chaikin and conducting background research, I learned of the years she has
dedicated to this historical project, her fundraising efforts and the hours of
material gathered, which has allowed her to extend the film into an educational
platform with post-commentary footage, offering poignant realities on the sexism
female musicians encountered during the early jazz years, coupled with an enriching analysis on the current state of jazz.
Coming from a family
of musicians and understanding the value of a music education, this is a woman
whose unwavering determination has allowed us to experience a film that is
quickly becoming a scholastic legacy on the history of jazz, as it bridges
various interdisciplinary studies across academia.
This is Chaikin’s
story on what it took to create this labor of love, the funders who made it
possible, and an overview of her filmography.
Interiors of Man: Please begin with the
moment you became aware of female jazz musicians
from the big band era and how your awareness of them inspired you to make this
film.
Judy Chaikin: A friend told me she had
met a woman who was in her late 80’s who said she had been a drummer with a big
band in the forties. When I looked her
up online I discovered that it was an all-girl band she had been with and then
I learned that there were hundreds of all-girl bands but not very much was ever
written about them.
IOM: One of the main funders for The
Girls in the Band was Hugh Hefner.
Share with us what this project meant to him.
JC: I have no way of knowing what the project
meant to Hugh Hefner. He never shared
his reasons for wanting to support it but he has always been a big supporter of
jazz and has had many women performers in his Playboy Jazz Festival at the
Hollywood Bowl.
IOM: And
Herb Alpert was another supporter.
JC:
Herb was a personal friend and he had helped finance my first film,
“Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist.”
That film was nominated for an Emmy award and Herb was proud of that and
decided to support this film as well. He
gave me a matching grant and one year to fulfill it and Hugh Hefner stepped in
and matched Herb’s grant and eventually doubled it.
IOM:
The film is educational in
itself, exposing the public to female musicians during the height of gender resistance,
while illuminating the political confrontations these women encountered with
Jim Crow laws as a racially integrated band.
JC:
That is why the film is now part of the curriculum in Women’s Studies,
African American studies and Jazz Studies.
We recently received an e-mail from the head of the Jazz department at
Yale University informing us that ever since he saw the film he has completely
revised his curriculum on the history of Jazz.
IOM:
Two points that stood out in your
and Michael Greene’s commentary footage were your referencing the unfortunate
losses we’ve incurred due to the lack of school bands, and Green emphasizing
the fundamentals of a K-12 music curriculum to produce the type of professional
musicians that were prevalent before the cuts in music education.
JC: Yes that is still the current
situation.
IOM:
Being a graduate of AFI’s
Directing Workshop for Women has more than likely predisposed your interest in
films about women, as with GTB and your docu-drama on Sojourner Truth. Takes us through your journey in deciding to
create the Sojourner documentary.
JC: I was predisposed to
making films about women long before the DWW.
Even the Blacklist film was made from the point of view of the wives and
children of the men who were blacklisted.
My first directing job was a stage play called “Womanspeak” in the late
sixties during the initial years of the Women’s Revolution. It was all about the historical women who had
done important things. Margaret Sanger, Victoria Woodhull, Sojourner Truth,
etc. The play starred Jane Fonda.
The film on Sojourner Truth was a
job for hire. The production company
came to me with the concept. I was more
than happy to work on it but I did not initiate it.
IOM:
Before closing with a quote from
Executive Producer, Michael Greene, what new projects would you like to add to
your filmography?
JC: I would like to do a film or a TV series
about an African American all-Girl band.
That’s what I’m working on now.
IOM: Look
forward to seeing it.
For more information on
The Girls in the Band’s education platform, visit http://thegirlsintheband.com/education-project-and-platform/
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“… Jazz was a place where white America and black America had this very
synergistic connection.”
– Michael Green
(Audio commentary from The Girls in
the Band)
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