Sande Zeig is an American film director and writer. She was the partner of late French feminist writer Monique Wittig.[1] She directed the 2000 romantic drama The Girl.
Sande Zeig is from New York City and is of Jewish heritage.[2] She studied theater in Wisconsin and Paris. In 1975, Zeig was living in Paris, studying mime and teaching karate, when she met the writer Monique Wittig.[3][4]
Zeig and Wittig co-wrote the French book Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes, which they both later translated into the English Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary. The work is a piece of metafiction, using its own form and contents to critique the male-centric viewpoints commonly used in encyclopedic dictionaries. The entries in their encyclopedia describe a fictional lesbian utopia, and in the original French edition, even nouns and pronouns which would normally have masculine endings are written with feminine endings instead.[5] The entry for Sappho is one blank page, which scholar Jack Winkler describes as appropriate and refreshing given Sappho's poetry and reception.[6] In the title of the French edition, Brouillon means rough draft. Scholar Kristine Anderson interprets this as a comment on how much more of the lesbian world exists than can be captured in the work, and more broadly, a reminder that all encyclopedias fail to capture a full portrayal of the world.[7]
Zeig and Wittig collaborated on a theater piece called "The Constant Journey." They used distancing effects and subverted theater conventions to alienate the audience, allowing for more lesbian themes to come through in the work.[8]
Zeig and Jeff Lunger were primary programmers for the New Festival for several years, choosing experimental films with the goal of attracting the attention and respect of the art-film industry. The board replaced them in 1993 with a selection committee, with the goal of choosing a new palate of films that would be more commercial and help the festival connect with sponsors and distributors.[9]
Zeig's 2000 film, The Girl is based on a short story by Wittig.[10] Her 2008 biographical film Soul Masters: Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha follows the work of two Chinese healers, one of whom had previously treated Zeig's father.[11] Zeig is the founder of New York City film distribution company Artistic License Films.[12]
Wittig, Zeig's partner of many years, died on January 3, 2003.[13]
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