ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
Women Laughing is a documentary about the diverse women cartoonists who have graced the pages of The New Yorker from the first issue to the present day, as well as a fun, insightful journey into how women’s humor reflects their struggles.

SYNOPSIS
In WOMEN LAUGHING, New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly sets out to explore her lifelong passion for humor and cartooning by talking with, and sometimes drawing, other funny women. These fantastic women—cartoonists and comedians and other wits—will include one of The New Yorker’s most popular cartoonists, Roz Chast; Amy Hwang, the magazine’s first Asian woman cartoonist, and Bishakh Som, the magazine’s first trans woman cartoonist.

For centuries, in fact until very recently, women and people of color were mostly kept away from the gates of humor. In this entertaining and eye-opening film, Donnelly also draws on her acclaimed book, Very Funny Ladies, which tells the little-known story of the women cartoonists who have appeared on the pages of the iconic magazine from the first issue to the present day.

From the pioneering cartoonists like Barbara Shermund and Helen Hokinson in the 1920s, to the artists of the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, right up to the present, the film will look at how far women have come in a field long dominated by men.

Like good comedians, cartoon artists hold up a mirror, reflecting the good, bad and the ugly bits of our culture right back at us, while making us laugh. Today, especially at The New Yorker, there are more diverse artists who identify as women and non-binary. Yet the struggle is far from over.

This film will explore how women’s humor is changing the narrative by helping us see the world differently.

Donnelly’s journey is to understand the lure of humor, especially for women-identified cartoonists. What are they working towards? The next laugh, or something more profound?

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Short

DIRECTOR Liza Donnelly, Kathleen Hughes
PRODUCER Judith Mizrachy, Liza Donnelly

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