93QUEEN

A group of tenacious women are shattering the glass ceiling in their Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood to create the first all-female volunteer EMS corps in NYC.

emergency medical services card
Series
POV
Premiere Date
September 17, 2018
Length
90 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
Director/Producer

Paula Eiselt

Paula Eiselt is a NYC-based independent filmmaker whose work has been supported by the Sundance Institute; ITVS; IFP; the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA); the International Documentary Association (IDA); Women Make Movies (WMM) and the Hartley Film Foundation. Eiselt was also a 2016 IFP Documentary Lab Fellow. Her film 93QUEEN won the Show more inaugural firstlook Pitch Prize at the 2017 Hot Docs Forum. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Eiselt's filmmaking journey began on a spring day in 10th grade when she skipped class at her Orthodox Jewish high school to rent Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, which inspired her to become a filmmaker and led to her securing an internship with Mr. Aronofsky. Prior to directing her own feature-length films, Eiselt served as researcher for The Undocumented (Independent Lens); and as AP for Bronx Princess (POV). Additional directing credits include short films Priscilla (NY Newfilmmaker Series at Anthology Film Archive); My Mom the Dead Head (Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner) and The Fitting Room (NY Jewish Student Short Film Festival). In addition to her feature docs, Eiselt is developing a New York Times Op-Doc on Jewish identity in collaboration with the team behind the In Conversation on Race series. Eiselt lives in Queens with her husband, two young curious sons and a sassy daughter. Show less

Producer

Heidi Reinberg

Heidi Reinberg's work spans the breadth of the nonfiction realm, from long-form docs for PBS, HBO and LOGO to directing reality television for HGTV to series development for branded-content powerhouse Cinelan. Prior to partnering with director Paula Eiselt on 93QUEEN, Reinberg worked with some of today’s most talented nonfiction directors. She Show more developed the nonfiction series War Photographers/Exposure with Oscar winner Ross Kauffman for NBCUniversal, and produced Oscar winner Cynthia Wade’s first two films, Grist for the Mill and Shelter Dogs for Cinemax and HBO, respectively. She also served as consulting producer on Mai Iskander’s two feature docs, Garbage Dreams (Independent Lens) and Words of Witness (Al Jazeera America). Her other credits include Lisa Gossels’ My So-Called Enemy for PBS Global Voices and Who Does She Think She Is for PBS, and Gender Rebel for LOGO. In addition to her work in the social-issue doc space, Reinberg has traveled the world directing numerous episodes of the cult favorite HGTV series House Hunters International. She can’t wait to go back to Dubrovnik. Show less

Executive Producer

Marco Williams

Marco Williams is a filmmaker and film educator, best known for Two Towns of Jasper, which won a Peabody Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. His directing credits include: The Undocumented (Independent Lens/PBS); Inside the New Black Panthers (National Geographic); Banished (Independent Lens/PBS); Freedom Summer (History Show more Channel); I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education (MTV); MLK Boulevard: The Concrete Dream (Discovery Times); Making Peace: Rebuilding our Communities (PBS); The Pursuit of Happiness: With Arianna Huffington (PBS); Without a Pass (PBS); In Search of Our Fathers (Frontline/PBS); and From Harlem to Harvard (The Learning Channel). In addition to the Peabody, Williams’ awards include a Beacon, an Alfred I duPont, a Pan African Film Festival Outstanding Documentary Award, a Full Frame Documentary Festival Spectrum Award, and the National Association of Black Journalists First Place Salute to Excellence Award. Show less

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The Film

Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, 93Queen follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented—and insider—access, 93Queen offers up a unique portrayal of a group of religious women who are taking matters into their own hands to change their own community from within.

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