Lucy Kostelanetz is a New York–based independent documentarian known for letting people speak for themselves—then building the story from their voices, photographs, home movies, and archives. Her first feature, Sonia( 2007), traces the life and art of her great-aunt, the Russian avant-garde painter Sofia “Sonia” Dymshitz-Tolstaya, and screened widely, including the New York Jewish Film Festival and MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight; it is distributed by The Cinema Guild.
Her second feature, We Don’t Wanna Make You Dance (2013), follows the 1980s NYC funk band Miller, Miller, Miller & Sloan over decades—beginning with gigs at CBGB and culminating in a reunion—premiering at DOC NYC.
Kostelanetz’s early shorts already showed her affection for primary sources and “hand-crafted” filmmaking. Rebeka Goes Down the Slide (8 min, B&W) captures a toddler’s first big leap and features a song performed by Pete Seeger, while Rebeka Goes to China (1992) observes a seven-year-old’s year in Guangzhou; the latter won Best Educational Film/Video and a Special Jury Award for Global Awareness at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
Beyond directing, she has long worked inside the documentary ecosystem. Earlier in her career she served at the New York State Council on the Arts, and later joined the board of International Film Seminars (presenter of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar), serving as board president in 2000–2001.
Her Russian-arts project Sonia drew special recognition from the Pushkin Society in America at the 7th Russian Documentary Film Festival in New York. She has also appeared on festival juries, reflecting her ongoing engagement with nonfiction cinema.
