Bio

Vicky Funari is a documentary filmmaker, editor, and teacher.  She produced, directed, and edited MAQUILÁPOLIS [city of factories] (2006), a piercing look at globalization through the eyes of Mexican factory workers (co-directed by Sergio De La Torre).  She produced, directed, and edited the non-fiction feature Paulina (1998), a story of human resilience, about a Mexican woman who redefines and reclaims herself after being trafficked as a child (co-produced with Jennifer Maytorena Taylor).  She directed and edited Live Nude Girls UNITE! (2000), a fierce, funny account of the first strippers’ union in the US (co-directed by Julia Query).  These award-winning, critically acclaimed films have screened in preeminent film festivals, including Sundance, Locarno, Havana, Rotterdam, SXSW, Ambulante, and Tribeca, and have aired on PBS and the Sundance Channel. 

Funari’s work encompasses a commitment to co-creative and community-oriented processes.  She builds multiplatform project elements and collaborative engagement campaigns to keep the work connected, useful, and accessible to the people represented in the work and to maximize its real-world impact.  With MAQUILÁPOLIS and its Binational Community Engagement Campaign she and her team modeled this approach, partnering with factory workers and grassroots organizations to promote public dialogue and social change.

She is a Visiting Senior Lecturer in Visual Studies at Haverford College, where she teaches documentary filmmaking and designs interdisciplinary programming and curriculum. 

Full Bio

Films

Pool Movie (working title)

A multiplatform documentary currently in post-production.

In an aquacize class at a neighborhood pool, older people find strength, grace, and community, even as they face difficult transitions. This multiplatform documentary is an intimate look at healthy aging in the 21st century.

MAQUILÁPOLIS [city of factories]

A piercing look at globalization through the eyes of women workers in Tijuana’s assembly plants, the maquiladoras.

“Making explicit the slogan ‘knowledge equals power,’ MAQUILÁPOLIS is the rare activist documentary that really does empower the individual women at the heart of its story.” – Jay Weissberg, Variety

Una mirada penetrante sobre el impacto de la globalización, desde el punto de vista de las trabajadoras de las maquiladoras en Tijuana.

“Haciendo explícito el dicho ‘saber es poder,’ MAQUILÁPOLIS es el raro ejemplo de un documental activista que de veras empodera a las mujeres que son el corazón de la historia.” — Jay Weissberg, Variety

Live Nude Girls UNITE!

A fierce and funny first-person account of a group of strippers who fight for and win the only exotic dancers’ labor union in the United States.

“A naughty Norma Rae!” —Entertainment Weekly

“Displays its share of exposed flesh, but at heart it’s part of the rich tradition of labor documentaries that includes Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, U.S.A. and American Dream.” —New York Times

Paulina

A Mexican domestic servant returns to her home village to confront her family about her painful childhood.  Where she hoped for truth, she encounters a web of intrigue and denial. Paulina interweaves documentary and fiction styles to explore radically different views of this resilient woman.  An exploration of the lasting impact of systemic violence against women, and a testament to the power of resilience.

“Paulina was ten years in the making, but its passion and energy are fresh… blending real-life and re-enactment footage with dazzling virtuosity… a favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, it has a magical glow.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Una trabajadora doméstica mexicana regresa a su pueblo natal para confrontarse con su familia sobre una memoria preocupante de su infancia.  Viaja con la esperanza de descubrir la verdad, pero se enfrenta con un tejido de mentiras.  Paulina combina los estilos del documental y de la ficción para explorar puntos de vista opuestos, sobre esta mujer fuerte e irreprimible. Es una investigación sobre el impacto de la violencia de género, y testifica al poder de la resiliencia humana.

“Un documental notable…  simultaneamente devastador e inspirador… su estilo es inteligente y seguro de sí mismo… un testamento a lo que el espíritu humano puede soportar y superar.”  –The New York Times

skin•es•the•si•a

How does a woman’s body move? skin•es•the•si•a scrambles the cultural codes of female movement by juxtaposing images from the work of performance artist Hannah Sim with images of Sim working as a nude dancer in a peep show.

“Examines the construction of gender through body parts and movement… a rap piece that is dangerous, poetically enlightening and ultimately enthralling.” —Edward Rubin, Greenwich Village Press

Alternative Conceptions

An exploration of the early days of the lesbian baby boom, when lesbians pioneered the use of donor insemination to create a new kind of family.

“Explores critical issues:  Why choose alternative insemination?  Should a child have the opportunity to know his or her biological father?  Just how are lesbians creating new kinds of families?  Watch and find out.”  – San Francisco Sentinel

“Thanks to advances in reproductive technology… the lesbian baby boom has broadened the definition of the ‘nuclear’ family… Alternative Conceptions looks at a single parent and a couple at the forefront of this reproductive revolution.”  – San Francisco Bay Guardian

More Work

The work here spans disciplines and genres.  Most of these projects are hybrids:  community-oriented filmmaking, blended with teaching, blended with artmaking for social change.  I hope that through this work I am building an ever more rigorous, thoughtful, and heartfelt approach to mediamaking.

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Press

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