Frozen! OMG. At first, I turned my nose up at the turquoise ice-lady. Until I actually watched the film with my kid and bawled my eyes out, because for once, the girls on screen are cool and strong and funny and they help each other out. They don’t need any knights in shining armour or anything. And when I learned about director Jennifer Lee, I became a full-blown fan. There! I admit it!
Jennifer Lee (*1971) studied film at Columbia University, and a few years later started working at Disney after what was just supposed to be a brief writing stint. Then, she started working for „Frozen“ as a screenwriter. And then, she was promoted to co-director and helped shape Elsa and Anna into „wild and wonderful“ girls. She was the first female director for a Disney movie, and until Wonder Woman came along, Frozen was the highest-grossing feature film directed by a woman (I’m aware that the fact that this happened in 2013 is a bit of a downer. But still.) In 2018, she was named chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios. BAAAM!!
And even though she more than proved herself, she’s not immune to episodes of self-doubt. „Self-doubt is a destructive force“, she said at a commencement speech ((verlinken mit)) in 2014.
"If the first draft of Frozen was the one we made, if I had been too defensive to listen to the notes and criticisms and wasted my time trying to prove that I was good enough instead of doing what the film needed, it wouldn't be Frozen and I wouldn't be standing here today. If you can learn to not take it personally, you'll be able to listen to constructive criticism and find it inspiring. It might motivate you and show you that you are capable of far more than you ever imagined.“
If you’re still not sure about it all, just watch this awesome Behind-the-scenes-video from a session with the orchestra: