GOOD TALK WITH MAUREEN JUDGE
Maureen Judge is an award-winning filmmaker whose candid and emotionally rich documentaries have screened at festivals, on television, and in educational settings worldwide. Her films are provocative, relevant, and relatable to audiences who see their own lives reflected in the subjects and their stories. The character-based films explore complex issues facing young adults, women, and families with empathy, humor and razor-sharp observations.
Maureen’s new critically acclaimed documentary, 17 AND LIFE DOESN'T WAIT, takes a deep dive into the hopes, dreams and challenges of three teen girls in their senior year of high school. The film captures the young women’s laughter, struggles, and victories as they grapple with family and university acceptances, engage in the perennial rituals of senior prom, digest the devastation of the Parkland massacre, graduate, and confront issues around sexual identity, suicide and assault. It explores what it’s like to be an adolescent female today and speaks directly to young women experiencing the pressures and anxieties of defining themselves in our world. A TVO Canadian public television commission with an award from the Hot Docs Production Fund, 17 And Life Doesn’t Wait earned nominations for Best Documentary Feature at the Columbus International Film & Animation Festival and for Best Mental Health Documentary, Yorkton Film Festival.
Maureen’s previous documentary, My Millennial Life, is also youth-centered and follows the struggles of five 20-somethings navigating underemployment, survival and love in the 21st Century. The film won multiple awards, including the prestigious 2017 Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Program. It was also honored as an official selection for the online showcase of the Best 2016 Cross platform projects by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam DocLab. Maureen’s other documentaries have received many awards including a Genie Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television for Unveiled: The Mother Daughter Relationship, a Chris Award for And We Knew How to Dance: Women and WWI, and a Hot Docs Special Feature Documentary Jury Prize for FLicKeR. Maureen holds a master’s degree in Cinema Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is an adjunct film professor at Sheridan College.