Joan Micklin Silver

Born in Omaha, Silver moved to New York City in 1967 where she began writing and directing films.

In the 1960s, she began writing scripts for children's educational films produced by Encyclopædia Britannica and the Learning Corporation of America, for which she directed three short films: The Case of the Elevator Duck, The Fur Coat Club, and The Immigrant Experience: The Long Long Journey.

[4] She reflected in one interview that the barriers to women's entry into filmmaking were so steep in the early 1970s that "I had absolutely no chance of getting work as a director.

"[1] Before beginning her career as a director, Silver worked as a writer; she sold a script entitled Limbo to Universal Pictures in 1972.

[13] The success of Hester Street allowed the Silvers to begin work on Joan's next project, the 1977 film Between the Lines.

[13] Silver is known for the film Crossing Delancey (1988), a romantic comedy starring Amy Irving about a bookstore clerk with career aspirations in the literary world, who is concerned about concealing her "Lower East Side roots".

[1] This project too ran into roadblocks: studio executives told Silver that Crossing Delancey was too "ethnic".

[15] In a 1989 interview, Silver identified the films Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Presenting Lily Mars (1943), and Song of the Islands (1942) as early influences.