Sarah Jacobson, Inspirational DIY Filmmaker

"What is DIY, you might ask?..."Well, it's a term co-opted from the punk rock movement and it stands for Do It Yourself. For as buzzword-y as the label is, it stands for a very important concept in the independent world -- the idea that you don't need a big company or lots of money to validate you."
- Sarah Jacobson, 1997
from IndieWIRE

Sarah Jacobson (1971 - 2004), produced and directed the following widely seen & praised indie movies:
"I Was A Teenage Serial Killer"
"Mary Jane's Not A Virgin Anymore"
She Started a production and distribution company called Station Wagon Productions.
Her film "Mary Jane..." played the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
She worked on television shows for Oxygen and VH1.
She traveled the country (and various parts of the world) showing her movies.
She inspired, and continues to inspire, many people (myself included) and was loved by many people (see the comments section of the IndieWIRE article cited below for more on this).

I spoke with Jacobson once on the phone regarding a screening event (at some point between '01 and '03 I think), it was a pleasant conversation, definitely all business, and then I got busy with my work & life, and the next time I heard about her to a very significant degree was in early 2004, when I heard that she had died. Life indeed is cruel (no matter what the "death is a part of life, relax & accept it" crowd says), for it is not acceptable, by any standard of excellence set by humans I respect, for a young and vibrant indie filmmaker to be taken away forever from existence.

Here are some links for further exploration:

a most excellent article about Sarah Jacobson:
Remembering DIY Queen Sarah Jacobson 1971 - 2004
http://www.indiewire.com/people/people_040218sarah.html

GreenCine Daily: Celebrating Sarah Jacobson
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/000379.html


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Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for writing about Sarah. She was very interested in the poor. When she was young she would ask me for quarter to give to the homeless. She did wonderful stories of girls in prison. She gave some money to charity every month, a different place each time.
It was 2 years ago Feb 13 when she died. Thanks for taking the time to keep her memory alive. Her Mom, Ruth Jacobson ruthe22@verizon.net
1:48 PM
Sujewa Ekanayake said…
Thanks Ruth for the comment. Sarah will continue to be inspirational for many filmmakers & other artists to come.

Sujewa
*******
2:29 PM
Anonymous said…
Sarah inspired me and still continues to do so. Strong women filmmakers are rare. I heard through one of her students that she spoke highly of my film, Death of a Saleswoman, when it was screening at the Pioneer Theatre in NYC, and that she encouraged others to see it. For this I'm appreciative; I never got to tell her in person. I followed her career and her advice as soon as I began reading about her. I'm sorry she's gone.
5:20 PM
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