Cut to 11: THE MAYSLES SISTERS

Cut to:
The Maysles Sisters
Before, During and After the Brothers

On this page are the biographies of the five women, a filmography of the twenty-two films they made, and then a list of the other editors who worked on films with the Maysles from 1961-2015. On the following page, you can see screen credits for some of the other films they made.

JM: Most of your collaborators have been women, though. Why women?
AM: Interesting…hmmm…Well, why not women? We chose whom we thought were the best, and if it was a woman who was the best, then fine. Maybe better, in fact, because women don’t always get the same opportunities.
—from “Albert Maysles” by Joe McElhaney. The interview was recorded in 2006. The full text can be found in the Appendix.

“Al never comes in on structure; he has never, to my knowledge, been in on the structuring of a film.”
—Ellen Hovde quoted in “The Documentary Conscience: A Casebook in Filmmaking” by Alan Rosenthal

DEBORAH DICKSON

Deborah Dickson has twenty credits as a producer, nineteen as a director, ten as an editor and four as a writer, as well as eleven award nominations and an additional ten wins (which were often shared with one or more co-producers or co-directors).
Between 1985-2001 she collaborated on eight films as part of the Maysles Sisters and Brothers team, working primarily with Susan Froemke and Albert Maysles. The first of these films was also her first editing credit: Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic (1985) was co-edited by Dickson and Pat Jaffe, and they share a co-directing credit with Froemke and both Maysles. Ozawa (1985) and Christo in Paris (1990) also involved David Maysles. The other five were co-directed by Dickson, Froemke and Albert Maysles. Their film Abortion: Desperate Choices (1992) won an Emmy and a Cable Ace Award, and the final film by the team was LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001), which was nominated for an Oscar, making it Dickson’s third Oscar nomination.
During and after her time working with the MS&B team, Dickson has been involved in many other films, and in some cases in collaboration with one of the Sisters. Dickson’s first Oscar nomination was for Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller (1987), which she directed and edited. Dickson and Froemke were co-directors of Karajan in Salzburg (1988, edited by Dickson) which received four Best Documentary nominations. She then collaborated with Anne Belle on two films about dance: Dancing for Mr. B: Six Balachine Ballerinas (1989), which got a Sundance nomination, and Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse (1996), for which she got her second Oscar nomination.
In 2002, Dickson directed Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House (edited by Rachel Kittner) which won eight awards, including at L.A. Outfest, NewFest, the Paris International Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival.
Her other collaboration with a Sister was in 2012, when Muffie Meyer was the producer of Dickson’s film, The Lost Bird Project (edited by Dickson)^,which won Best Documentary at the Nickel Independent Film Festival. Her most recent work includes two episodes of Art of the Twenty-First Century (2016).

SUSAN FROEMKE

Susan Froemke has twenty-nine credits as a producer, twenty-five as a director, two as a writer and one as an editor. She has fifteen award nominations and an additional twelve wins (which were sometimes shared with one or more co-producers or co-directors).
Froemke was involved in fifteen films made by the Maysles Sisters and Brothers. She was at Maysles longer than anyone except the Maysles themselves—not primarily as an editor but as a producer/director. After the untimely death of David in 1987, she took on most of the tasks that he had been handling; some have said that she became “the other brother.”
Froemke began as the receptionist/executive assistant; her first work on a film by the MS&B team was on Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974) as an assistant to the editor and co-director Ellen Giffard. The team’s next film was Grey Gardens (1976), which is the last one on which Froemke has an editing credit. She also has a credit as the associate producer. This is the most renowned film made by the group and Froemke, along with four others, won the Cinema Eye Honors Legacy Award for it. In 2010, Grey Gardens was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry.
Froemke’s work on the other thirteen films by the MS&B team was done primarily in conjunction with Deborah Dickson and Albert Maysles, with the exception of the first few. The first of these, and her first Emmy win, was Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic (1985; co-edited by Deborah Dickson and Pat Jaffe, who share a co-directing credit with Froemke and both Maysles.) Ozawa (1985) and Christo in Paris (1990) also involved David Maysles, while Horowitz Plays Mozart (1987) and Jessye Norman Sings Carmen (1989) also involved Charlotte Zwerin. In 1991, Froemke, Maysles, Peter Gelb and Bob Eisenhardt co-directed Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia (edited by Eisenhardt) which won an Emmy and an IDA Award. The other six films were co-directed by Dickson, Froemke and Albert Maysles (with Dickson as the main editor). Their film Abortion: Desperate Choices (1992) won an Emmy and a Cable Ace Award and the final film by the team was LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001), which was nominated for an Oscar.
During this period, and independent from the MS&B team, Froemke and Dickson co-directed Karajan in Salzburg (1988, co-edited by Dickson, Coco Houwer and Sarah Stein) which received four Best Documentary nominations.
In 2001, Froemke broke off from MS&B to form her own production company. Five of her ensuing films document various aspects of music and the opera, including In Rehearsal: A New Butterfly for the Met (2006) and The Opera House (2017), and she won a Grammy for Recording “The Producers”: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks (2001).
From 2009 to 2012, Froemke collaborated with Matthew Heineman on Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare, which won the Crystal Heart Award, the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights, the Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking at the Newport Beach Film Festival and an award at the Silverdocs Film Festival.
Other recent films which she directed or co-directed are The Resilient Heart (2016) and Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman (2017).

ELLEN HOVDE

Ellen Hovde has twenty credits as a producer, twenty as a director, and three as an editor. Her first listed credit (under the name Ellen Giffard) is for her work with the Maysles Sister and Brothers as a contributing film editor on Salesman (1969). A few years later, in conjunction with the two brothers, and still listed as Giffard, she was a co-director of Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974). Her work on the next MS&B film—Grey Gardens (1976), their most renowned film—introduced her to Muffie Meyer, another of the co-directors. Her credit on this film (and all the following ones) is as Ellen Hovde. Along with four others, she won the Cinema Eye Honors Legacy Award for Grey Gardens, and in 2010 it was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry.
Two years later, Hovde, Meyer and the Maysles made The Burk Family of Georgia (1978), which won the Columbia-DuPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
Subsequent to their work together on those two films, Hovde and Meyer formed their own production company, Middlemarch Films, Inc. in 1978. They co-produced and co-directed a variety of series and specials for PBS, including the Emmy Award-winning film, An Empire of Reason (1989; edited by Alison Ellwood), and in collaboration with Mirra Bank, the three women co-directed and co-edited a feature film for ABC, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Virginia’s Story (1983), based on stories by Grace Paley.
A number of the films produced and directed by Middlemarch Films focus on the founding of America—including the Peabody Award-winning six-part mini-series, Liberty! The American Revolution (1997) which won a Primetime Emmy, a Peabody Award and a Christopher Award, and the Emmy Award-winning three-part mini-series Benjamin Franklin (2002) —but their documentary subjects have also included science, medicine, and the arts. Notable among them are: The Crash of 1929 (1990); Behind the Scenes (1992), a 10-part series for children on the arts; and American Photography – a Century of Images (1999).
Saving the National Treasures (2005) was last film on which Hovde and Meyer collaborated and is the final film in Hovde’s filmography.

MUFFIE MEYER

Muffie Meyer has twenty-three credits as a producer, twenty-seven as a director, four as an editor and one as an actress. Her productions include documentaries, theatrical features, television series and children’s films. Films that she directed are the recipients of two Emmy Awards, CINE Golden Eagles, the Japan Prize, Christopher Awards, the Freddie Award, the Columbia-DuPont, and the Peabody Award, and she has been twice nominated by the Directors Guild of America.
Meyer got her start as an assistant editor cutting the performance footage for Woodstock (1970). Her early editing credits include The Lords of Flatbush and The Groove Tube, both from 1974.
Meyer collaborated with the Maysles Sisters and Brothers on two films during the late 1970’s. The first of these was Grey Gardens (1976), the most renowned film made by the MS&B team. Meyer, along with four others, won the Cinema Eye Honors Legacy Award for Grey Gardens, and in 2010 it was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Two years later, Meyer, Ellen Hovde and the brothers made The Burk Family of Georgia (1978), which won the Columbia-DuPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
Subsequent to their work together on those two films, Meyer and Hovde formed their own production company, Middlemarch Films, Inc. in 1978. They co-produced and co-directed a variety of series and specials for PBS, including the Emmy Award-winning film, An Empire of Reason (1989; edited by Alison Ellwood), and in collaboration with Mirra Bank, the three women co-directed and co-edited a feature film for ABC, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Virginia’s Story (1983), based on stories by Grace Paley.
A number of the films produced and directed by Middlemarch Films focus on the founding of America—including the Peabody Award-winning six-part mini-series, Liberty! The American Revolution (1997) which won a Primetime Emmy, a Peabody Award and a Christopher Award, and the Emmy Award-winning three-part mini-series Benjamin Franklin (2002) —but their documentary subjects have also included science, medicine, and the arts. Notable among them are: The Crash of 1929 (1990); Behind the Scenes (1992), a 10-part series for children on the arts; and American Photography – a Century of Images (1999).
Saving the National Treasures (2005) was last film on which she and Hovde collaborated. Since then, Meyer has produced and directed six films, including Alexander Hamilton (2007; edited by Eric Seuel Davies, Sharon Sachs and Paul Taylor) and Dolley Madison (2010; edited by Sachs). Meyer also has a co-editing credit with Hovde and Lynzee Klingman for Gilda Live (1980). In 2012 she collaborated with another one of the Sisters as the producer of The Lost Bird Project (2012; directed and edited by Deborah Dickson), which won Best Documentary at the Nickel Independent Film Festival.
Most recently, Meyer was the co-director (with Stephen Lyons) of a three-part TV mini-series, The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements (2015; all edited by Raoul Rosenberg.)

CHARLOTTE ZWERIN

Charlotte Zwerin (1931 – 2004) has seven credits as a producer, fourteen as a director, nine as an editor and three as a writer. She began working in 1957 as an assistant editor on various short films, and it was through her work at Drew Associates that she met the Maysles, who also worked there until 1961. (Robert Drew was a pioneer of direct cinema in the USA; Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker also got their start at Drew.)
In 1963, Zwerin was the associate producer and editor of Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World, directed by Shirley Clarke.
Her collaboration with the Maysles began in 1966 when she came in to edit Meet Marlon Brando. Between then and 1987, she co-directed seven films with them, including two of their most notable early films, Salesman and Gimme Shelter. Both of the films and their makers were selected as one of the “Influentials” from the Cinema Eye Honors Award in 2014, and in 1992 Salesman was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Among the other films she made as part of the Maysles Sisters and Brothers were and Running Fence (1978) and Horowitz Plays Mozart (1987; with Susan Froemke as an additional co-director, and edited by Pam Wise). Her last film with them was Islands (1987; edited by Kate Hirson.)
Zwerin went on to direct six films of her own, including: Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988), which in 2017 became the second film of hers to be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry; Sit Down and Fight (1993, edited by Zwerin); and Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For (1999; edited by Bernadine Colish), for which Zwerin won a Grammy Award.

FILMOGRAPHY: The twenty-two films made by the Maysles Brothers and Sisters,
in chronological order and based on the credits and the wording
assigned on the website of Maysles Films.

Meet Marlon Brando (1966)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles — Edited by Charlotte Zwerin

A Visit with Truman Capote (1966)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Charlotte Zwerin

Salesman (1969)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Charlotte Zwerin (contributing editor Ellen Giffard [Hovde], assistant editor Barbara Jarvis)

Gimme Shelter (1970)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Charlotte Zwerin, Ellen Giffard (Hovde), Robert Farren, Joanne Burke and Kent McKinney

Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974)
Ellen Giffard [Hovde], Albert Maysles, David Maysles — Edited by Ellen Giffard [Hovde] (assistant editor Susan Froemke)

Grey Gardens (1976)
Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, Albert Maysles, David Maysles (and Susan Froemke as associate producer) — Edited by Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer

The Burk Family of Georgia (1978)
Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Muffie Meyer — Edited by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer

Running Fence (1978)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Charlotte Zwerin

Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic (1985)
Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, Patricia (Pat) Jaffe, Albert Maysles, David Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson and Patricia (Pat) Jaffe

Ozawa (1985)
Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Islands (1986)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Kate Hirson

Horowitz Plays Mozart (1987)
Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Pam Wise

Jessye Norman Sings Carmen (1989)
Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin — Edited by Bernadine Colish

The Met in Japan (1989)
Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Christo in Paris (1990)
Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles, David Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia (1991)
Bob Eisenhardt, Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, Albert Maysles — Edited by Bob Eisenhardt

Abortion: Desperate Choices (1992)
Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Baroque Duet (1992)
Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, Pat Jaffe, Albert Maysles — Edited by Pat Jaffe

Accent on the Offbeat (1994)
Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, Albert Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Letting Go: A Hospice Journey (1996)
Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

Concert of the Wills: Making the Getty Center (1997)
Bob Eisenhardt, Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles — Edited by Bob Eisenhardt

Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001)
Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke with Albert Maysles — Edited by Deborah Dickson

THE OTHER EDITORS: What else happened, and with who?

The last collaboration involving the fabulous five was on the making of Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton in 2001. David and Albert also collaborated with other editors prior to 2001, beginning in 1961 when Nell Cox edited Safari Ya Gari.
From 2001 until his death in 2015, Albert worked with various other producers, co-directors and editors on ten more films.
The editors sometimes also got a co-directing credit, and sometimes didn’t.

The female editors who got a co-directing credit: Kristen Nutile, Lynn True, Pat Jaffe and Kathy Dougherty

The female editors who didn’t get a co-directing credit: Megan Brennan, Joanne Burke, Bernadine Colish, Nell Cox, Kate Hirson (née Glidden), Kathleen Hughes, Janice Isaac, Sakae Ishikawa, Barbara Jarvis, Betsy Powell, Janet Swanson, Dorothy Todd and Pam Wise

The male editors who got a co-directing credit: Bob Eisenhardt, Antonio Ferrera, Ian Markiewicz, Matthew Prinzig and Grahame Weinbren