Greenwald’s first feature film, Home Remedy (1987), from her original screenplay, premiered at the Munich Film Festival before screening at the London and Torino Film Festivals, and opening at the prestigious Film Forum in New York.
The next film she directed was The Kill-Off (1989), which she adapted from Jim Thompson’s noir novel of the same name. Acquired by Channel 4 in Britain, and released theatrically by Palace Filmed Entertainment, the film also appeared at film festivals around the world, including: Sundance (in Dramatic Competition), Munich (opening night, American Independent section), London, Florence, Deauville, Toronto and Edinburgh, before winning the Best Director Award at the Torino Film Festival before its release in the US. The film is listed in the BFI (British Film Institute) Screen Guides as one of the 100 best American Independent Films.[3] It established Greenwald’s as a significant independent filmmaking voice.
Greenwald went on to write and direct her groundbreaking Western, The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), which was released worldwide by Fine Line Features and Polygram Filmed Entertainment. Star Suzy Amis was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award while co-star David Chung won the award for Best Supporting Actor. A great deal has been written about the film by scholars of the Western who consider The Ballad of Little Jo a landmark revisionist film within the genre.[4][5][6] The film is also one of the primary subjects of Modleski’s Old Wives Tales and Other Women’s Stories, which explores “the phenomenon of female authors and performers who ‘cross-dress’ - women, that is, who are moving into male genres and staking out territory declared off-limits by men and by many feminists.”[7]
Subsequently, Greenwald wrote and directed Songcatcher (2000).[8] An unconventional, naturalistic musical, the film premiered in Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered a Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance. The film received the first Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize, Deauville Film Festival Audience Award, two Independent Spirit Award nominations (for actors Emmy Rossum and Pat Carroll) and a GLAAD Award nomination.[9]
Greenwald’s most recent film, Sophie and the Rising Sun (2016), is based on the novel by Augusta Trobaugh. She adapted, produced and directed the film,[10][11] which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2016, Salt Lake City Gala World Premiere.[12]
Recent television work includes episodes of Nashville and Madam Secretary, including the controversial episode, “Break in Democracy,” which was banned in the Philippines for its portrayal of a fictional Filipino dictator.
Earlier forays in directing for episodic television expanded Greenwald’s work to include children’s television. For Nickelodeon she directed several episodes of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, created the look of the show The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, for which she directed six episodes over two seasons. She also directed the non-air pilot for a show that evolved into Backyardigans and an episode of Wildfire for ABC Family (now Freeform).
Personal life
Greenwald is married (1994) to composer-musician David Mansfield, who scored many of her films. They have two daughters, Maisie (born 1997) and Lulu (born 2000).
^Kitses, Jim (1998). “An Exemplary Post-Modern Western: The Ballad of Little Jo,” in The Western Reader, Gregg Rickman and Jim Kitses, eds. New York: Limelight Editions, pp. 223-244.
^Modleski, Tania (1998). Old Wives' Tales and Other Women's Stories. New York: NYU Press.
