Therese Shechter

Therese Shechter is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, whose first documentary feature, I WAS A TEENAGE FEMINIST, had its New York pre¬miere in September 2005. She is currently in production on a new documentary "The American Virgin", which is about sex education in America.

Shechter recently completed a documentary short entitled "How I Learned to Speak Turkish", which won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at the 2005 Atlanta Film Festival. She worked with Macky Alston on his documentary "Questioning Faith", which aired on HBO/Cine¬max in Spring 2002, and was Associate Producer of "A Union of Spirit" a documentary short about a progressive New York Seminary. Shechter coordinated the outreach conference for PBS’s Active Voice Project Islam in conjunc¬tion with their airing of two documentaries on Islam. She has worked at the Filmmaker Lodge of the Sundance Film Festival since 2001, helping to coordinate panels and parties during the festival.

After attending Columbia College Film School in Chicago in the mid-1990s, Shechter worked for Robert De Niro’s production company Tribeca Films as Producer’s Assistant to his partner Jane Rosenthal. She also served as Post-Production Assistant for the Tribeca/Universal release "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", and worked with the Tribeca Film Center to produce their Internet filmmaking conference "Converge@Tribeca".

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Shechter spent 16 years in journalism and graphic design, most recently at the Chicago Tribune where, in her capacity as Associate Graphics and Design Editor, she contributed visual direction to several Pulitzer Prize-winning story packages.

Shechter occasionally writes about film and women’s issues for the Chicago Tribune, and she works as an art director for a variety of New York clients. She was a 2002 Project: Involve Trainee (for emerging filmmakers) from Independent Feature Project in New York, and was selected to take part in the Film/Video Arts Artist/Mentor program for 2004-2005. (11/06)

I Was a Teenage Feminist
A film by Therese Shechter, 2005, 62 min., Color
Why is it that some young, independent, progressive women in today's society feel uncomfortable identifying with the F-word? Join filmmaker Therese Sh...