MOLI VIEW™

When filmmaker, Adrienne Shelly, was murdered last November in New York, the film community suffered an enormous loss. Adrienne, an early alum filmmaker and member of Gen Art's film advisory board, had been eagerly awaiting news of whether her latest movie (which she wrote, directed and acted in), Waitress, made it into this year's Sundance Film Festival. (It did, and was quickly snatched up by Fox Searchlight.) Pulse spoke with Adrienne's husband, Andy Ostroy, about what made people love Adrienne, what he sees as her legacy, and how he hopes to help other female filmmakers in her memory.


How did you start The Adrienne Shelly Foundation?

After Adrienne died, people kept asking where they could contribute money in her honor. As you can imagine, those first few weeks were incredibly horrific. It was hard to get up, let alone think about charitable endeavors. With time, it became clear to me that while there are a lot of worthy organizations, where there really is a void, and what Adrienne was most passionate about, is filmmaking—the challenges that women face, and the mountains that they have to climb to become directors. She was just hitting her stride, with Waitress, and it would have propelled her into the mainstream. To carry out her vision, we needed to create a foundation to help women filmmakers...to find women who are ever present and special, like she was.
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