Liane Brandon Collection
Liane Brandon is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer and University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor Emerita. She is a co-founder of New Day Films and was one of the first independent women filmmakers working in New England. She was also a founding member of FilmWomen of Boston and Boston Film/Video Foundation. Brandon’s groundbreaking films Sometimes I Wonder Who I Am (1970) Anything You Want To Be (1971) and Betty Tells Her Story (1972) were among the most frequently used consciousness raising tools of the Women’s Movement. Her films, which also include Once Upon A Choice and How To Prevent A Nuclear War have won numerous national and international awards, and have been featured on HBO, Cinemax and the Criterion Channel. They have twice received Blue Ribbons at the American Film Festival and have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Barbican Centre in London, the Tribeca Film Festival and many other venues. In addition to her role as Professor at the University of Massachusetts and Chair of the Educational Technology Program in the College of Education, she was the Director of UMass Educational Television. Designed to provide the public with innovative, original educational programming, UMass Educational Television produced award winning, original educational programming for cable/home audiences throughout New England. The twelve original series (50 half-hour episodes) were carried by local and regional cable and were seen in over 40 cities and towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The College of Education became the first educational college in the country to produce original educational programming for cable/home audiences. Currently working as a photographer, her credits include stills for American Masters, Nova, and Unsolved Mysteries. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and many other publications.
The Liane Brandon Collection consists chiefly of printed materials related to the antinuclear movement, peace movement, labor unions and workers’ movement, feminism and the women’s movement, women filmmakers, student movements and organizing, as well as photographs and videotapes of shows produced by UMass Educational Television (1995-1999). For materials related to Brandon’s contributions to UMET, see the UMass Educational Television Collection.
Brandon’s historic films and papers are held at the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.