Amidst a personal crisis, filmmaker Shaina Feinberg reaches out to trailblazing director and teacher, Joan Darling. What unfolds over years of filming is an intimate, hilarious portrait of a mentorship, that goes beyond career guidance to become a meaningful friendship and a master class on how to be.
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. During her first visit, Shaina realizes that Joan has influenced hundreds of artists over the past 60 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, eventually uncovering Joan's one regret: that she never got to make the book "The Tortilla Curtain" into a film. On the cusp of Joan's 90th birthday, Shaina races against the clock to enlist Joan's past mentees to fulfill this dream.
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 (she/they) is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer. She spent her twenties making a stoner, punk sketch show called The Spew. She has been on This American Life, was a resident at Space on Ryder Farms (2018) and Twenty Summers (2021), a Reel Families for Change grantee (2022), a recipient of the Reboot Studios grant (2023) and her short film Cleo From 8:20 to 2:35 was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts grant (2024). Her short doc, A Brief History of Hating My Face (2023), was commissioned by The New York Times. She has written for The New Yorker, Washington Post and had a column in The New York Times from 2019-2024. Her third book, Work (2024), has starred reviews in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Book Page. Her films and books have been written about in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bust, Broadly, Logo, THEM, Indiewire and more. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their two children.
Elisabeth Durkin (she/her) produces narrative projects for film, TV and digital as well as corporate and commercial content for brands including AllianceBernstein, Dress for Success, Macy’s and Maybelline. Notable works include: My Mom’s Eggplant Sauce (Short of the Week), A Brief History of Hating My Face (The New York Times), Fly By (Uninterrupted.com), Aliens of Extraordinary Ability (Audible), Red States (Topic), and Dinette (BRICtv). Elisabeth is the co-owner of Zerocool (www.zerocool.tv), a multi-disciplinary production company based in New York and Los Angeles. She started her career working for Martha Stewart, where she was a member of the team creating primetime television specials for MSLO and the Hallmark Channel. She was once trapped in a chicken coop with Martha but lived to tell the tale.
Judith Mizrachy is a New York City-based independent producer. Her film THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, about the Watergate whistleblower who was silenced by the Nixon Administration, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released globally on Netflix in 2022. It was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award® for Best Short Documentary. Her previous film THE BOOKSELLERS, a behind-the-scenes look at the rare book community, premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2019 and was released around the world. Most recently UNCROPPED, about the Village Voice photographer James Hamilton, launched as the 2023 Centerpiece at DOC NYC and opened theatrically in 2024. Her 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. Judith previously served as the Director of Marketing and Communications at Women Make Movies.
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