Struggling filmmaker Shaina Feinberg travels to Maine to interview trailblazing TV director and teacher Joan Darling. Over years of filming, Shaina uncovers Joan’s final storytelling wish and enlists her former mentees and collaborators to fulfill it, only to find the 90-year-old legend has a few plot twists of her own.
SYNOPSIS
Shaina Feinberg is in the midst of a personal crisis, juggling a flailing film career and the unrelenting demands of motherhood. At her lowest, she seeks out guidance from Joan Darling, an octogenarian director who has retired to Maine. Joan Darling isn’t a household name, but, as one of the first female TV directors, her name was in every household. She started her career under legend Norman Lear and was the first woman to be nominated for an Emmy in directing. She directed shows including MASH, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Taxi, Rhoda, The Bionic Woman, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and more.
During Shaina’s first visit, she realizes that in addition to Joan’s personal accomplishments as a director, her true legacy comes from being a teacher and mentor; working in Los Angeles and New York in the 1970s and 1980s and at the Sundance Directors Lab for the last 30 years. It turns out Joan has influenced hundreds of artists over the past 50 years, from Mary Tyler Moore to Lesli Linka Glatter (Mad Men, Homeland) and the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
Shaina films Joan over several years, collecting her personal history while also tracking their May-December friendship and trying to make sense of her own life and creative path. Eventually, Shaina uncovers Joan’s one regret: that she never got to make the book The Tortilla Curtain into a film. Just as Joan turns 90, Shaina races against the clock to enlist Joan’s past mentees and collaborators to fulfill this dream.
But Joan, ever the director, has strong opinions. Not just about the Tortilla Curtain project, but about the documentary as well. She wants it to reflect her values: truth, spontaneity and emotional risk-taking. As Shaina attempts to craft a story that honors Joan, she finds herself being directed by Joan in more ways than one. The result is a collaboration full of joy, tension, surprise and deep creative collaboration.
Ultimately, None of This Matters is a love letter from one artist to another. And a testament to the lifelong, unpredictable journey of making something that matters.
Director Statement
None of This Matters is essentially a love letter from me to my mentor, Joan Darling. Joan is a trailblazing director and teacher who has worked with hundreds of directors and actors over the past six decades. I am lucky to be one of them. My vision for the film is defined by my deeply personal and innovative approach to storytelling. In making None of This Matters, I am blending authenticity with whimsy and humor, crafting a narrative that is intimate, inventive and comedic. The film will be informative as well as playful, and will incorporate unconventional elements such as mixed media and meta-commentary to create a distinctive cinematic experience. All with a wry touch!
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Shaina Feinberg
Shaina Feinberg is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer. In her twenties she created a stoner-punk sketch show, The Spew, has appeared on This American Life, written a New York Times column (2019–2024), created two original series for Audible and authored three books. She directed two short documentaries for The New York Times: A Brief History of Hating My Face (2023) and I Almost Quit My Career for My Kids. Then I Met Joan Darling. (2025). Her documentary My Mom’s Eggplant Sauce (2022) opened the Aspen Film Festival and is taught at universities in the U.S. and U.K. Her short Cleo From 8:20 to 2:35 received a 2024 NYFA grant. Her film We Should Eat (2024) won the 2025 Caz Matthews Award at SeriesFest, and has screened at over 30 festivals. Shaina was a 2025 resident at JFI with her feature None of This Matters, which was awarded a 2026 NYSCA grant.
Elisabeth Durkin has produced work that has been commissioned by The New York Times, Audible, Topic, Uninterrupted, and BRICtv. She co-owns Zerocool, a New York– and L.A.–based production company, and has created branded content for clients such as Macy’s, Maybelline, Dress for Success, Alliance Bernstein and Martha Stewart. Recent work includes: Cleo From 8:20 to 2:35 (2024 NYFA grant recipient), We Should Eat (2025 Caz Matthews Award at SeriesFest) and the feature documentary None of This Matters (2026 NYSCA grant) about Hollywood legend Joan Darling and featuring Marisa Tomei and The Daniels.
Judith Mizrachy is a New York City-based independent producer. Her work includes The Martha Mitchell Effect, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, was released globally on Netflix, and was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award® for Best Short Documentary; The Booksellers, which premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2019 and was released theatrically around the world; and Uncropped, which launched as the Centerpiece at DOC NYC in 2023 was named “One of the Best Documentaries of the Year” by Variety. Her recent producing credits also include the ITVS film Land With No Rider (True/False 2025), Maintenance Artist (Tribeca 2025), and the short documentary Women Laughing (Woodstock Film Festival 2025). Judith's work has been shown on big screens including Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Bertha DocHouse London, and on small screens via Netflix, The Criterion Channel, The New Yorker and more.
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