Katy Chevigny
Birth nameKaty Gale Chevigny
Birth placeNew York
Spouse
  • Jonathan Michael Chen (m. September 29, 2001)
  • Jack Smith (m. July 23, 2011)
EducationYale University (BA)
OccupationDocumentary filmmaker
Years active1997–present
Notable worksDeadline (2004), E-Team (2014), Dark Money (2018)
AwardsThurgood Marshall Journalism Award (for Deadline)

Katy Gale Chevigny is an American documentary filmmaker. She has produced or directed more than 30 documentary films and won a number of awards for her work.

Early life and education

Chevigny was born to Bell Gale Chevigny and Paul G. Chevigny. Her father is a law professor emeritus at NYU Law, where he headed its human rights clinic. Her mother is a literature professor emeritus at Purchase College and edited Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing (1999). Chevigny graduated cum laude from Yale University.[1]

Career

Chevigny was employed as a social worker in Chicago, and developed an interest in film. After deciding to change careers, she moved to New York City to start Big Mouth Productions in 1997 with a friend from college, Julia Pimsleur.[2] Pimsleur left the company in 2002.[2] As of 2004 Chevigny's partner in the company was Dallas Brennan.[2] By 2022, Marilyn Ness had joined the company.[3]

With Kirsten Johnson she co-directed Deadline (2004), which won a Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award.[4] The film, an examination of Illinois governor George Ryan's decision to commute the death sentences of everyone awaiting execution in the state, was purchased and broadcast on Dateline NBC, a rare example of a major commercial network acquiring an independent documentary.[5][6][7][a]

Chevigny directed Election Day which premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2007 and was broadcast on POV in 2008.[citation needed]

She co-directed with Ross Kauffman the feature-length documentary E-Team, which won Best Cinematography at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival[8] and was released as a Netflix Original in October 2014.[9] She produced the 2014 documentary 1971.[6]

She directed one of six segments of Hard Earned, which aired on Al Jazeera America in 2015 and won an Alfred I. duPont Award.[10]

With Kimberly Reed, Chevigny co-produced Dark Money (2018). PBS purchased distribution rights to the film, planning to include it in the docu-series POV.[11]

In 2024, Chevigny directed the narrative film The Easy Kind revolving around a musician, which had its world premiere at the 51st Telluride Film Festival and released in June 2026, by Persimmon.[12]

Recognition

Chevigny received a MacDowell Fellowship in 2008.[13]

Two films she co-produced have been nominated for an Emmy, in 2020 Becoming and in 2021 Dick Johnson Is Dead,[14] which also won the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling at Sundance in 2020.[15]

Film work

Television work

Personal life

Chevigny married Dr. Jonathan Michael Chen in 2001;[1] they later divorced.

In July 2011, she married Jack Smith, a prosecutor working for the U.S. Department of Justice.[18] They have a daughter.[19] The couple lived in the Netherlands from 2018 until 2022, where Smith was working in The Hague, before they moved to Washington, D.C.[20][21]

Notes

  1. ^ A partial transcript of the film is available online.[22]

References

  1. ^ "Family tree of Katherine Gale Chevigny Katy". Geneanet. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
  2. ^ Angell, Elizabeth (2004-03-01). "The Girl Team". Independent Magazine. Archived 2022-11-20 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
  3. ^ "Big Mouth Productions - Team". Big Mouth Productions. Archived 2022-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
  4. ^ "Enterprise Documentary Fund Advisory Board - Katy Chevigny". International Documentary Association. April 5, 2017. Archived April 15, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  5. ^ Johnson, Steve (July 30, 2004). "Effective 'Deadline' gets 'Dateline' airing". Chicago Tribune. Archived November 20, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  6. ^ "December 2014 Filmmaker of the Month - Katy Chevigny". DC.gov. December 2014. Archived June 25, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  7. ^ Villaseñor, Irene (2008). "Election Day by Katy Chevigny: A Film Discussion Guide". Archived 2023-04-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-11-19. – via Academia.
  8. ^ Patten, Dominic & Yamato, Jen (January 25, 2014). "Sundance Awards: 'Whiplash' & 'Rich Hill' Win Grand Jury Prizes; Dramatic Directing Goes To Cutter Hodierne For 'Fishing Without Nets'". Deadline. Archived June 12, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  9. ^ Gilman, Greg (September 17, 2014). "Netflix's 'E-Team' Trailer Exposes Terrifying Human Rights Abuses". The Wrap. Archived November 20, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  10. ^ "Hard Earned - Al Jazeera America & Kartemquin Films". duPont-Columbia Awards. Archived November 20, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  11. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (2018-03-01). "PBS Acquires Rights To Sundance Docu 'Dark Money'". Deadline. Archived 2018-09-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  12. ^ Erbland, Kate (May 8, 2026). "‘The Easy Kind’ Trailer: Country Legend Elizabeth Cook (Lightly) Fictionalizes Herself". IndieWire. Retrieved May 15, 2026.
  13. ^ "Katy Chevigny". MacDowell. Archived February 3, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  14. ^ "Katy Chevigny". Television Academy. Archived June 27, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  15. ^ "U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling — Dick Johnson Is Dead". Sundance Film Festival. Archived February 4, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  16. ^ Tungekar, Rehman (February 28, 2014). "'E-team' explores the human side of Human Rights Watch". KBIA BBC World Service. Archived December 3, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  17. ^ Burde, Dana (November 1, 2015). "E-Team by Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman". Comparative Education Review. 59 (4): 804–806. doi:10.1086/684072. ISSN 0010-4086. Archived April 27, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  18. ^ "Class Notes". Harvard Law Bulletin. Vol. 63. 2012. p. 58. Archived 2023-03-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-04-27. On July 23, Jack Smith and Katy Chevigny were married on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York by the Honorable Nicholas G. Garaufis. Smith is serving as the chief of the public integrity section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where the couple lives.
  19. ^ "Masters/Tri Q&A: Jack Smith". Nashville Aquatic Club. January 31, 2018. Archived November 20, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  20. ^ Eisenstadt, Marnie (December 14, 2022). "How Jack Smith went from Liverpool football bench to a starring role in Trump investigation". syracuse.com. Archived December 14, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  21. ^ "Who Is Jack Smith, the Special Counsel Who Indicted Trump?"
  22. ^ "'The Abrams Report: Deadline" for July 30". NBC News. August 2, 2004. Archived November 20, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 27, 2023.

https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=en&n=chevigny&p=katherine+gale