Synopsis
Identical twin sisters Emilija and Ona have lived in a rent-controlled warehouse loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for as long as they can remember. After the sudden death of their mother, a Lithuanian artist and dancer who first called the loft home in the 1970s, they find themselves on the brink of eviction. The neighborhood has transformed; the landlord wants them out. A Woman’s Place is Everywhere tells an intimate story of grief, memory, sisterhood, and motherhood, set against the backdrop of an ever-evolving New York City.
Highlights
- 99th Oscars® — For Your Consideration: Best Documentary Short Film
Cast
- Featuring
- Emilija and Ona Rygelis
Credits
- Director
- Fanny Texier
- Producer
- Alison Joy
- Executive Producer
- Sonia Kennebeck
- Dir. of Photography
- Fanny Texier
- Editor
- Fanny Texier
- Composer and Pianist
- Emilija Rygelis
- Music Recording
- Gintas Norvila
- Sound Design & Mix
- Anastasiia Frolova
- Colorist
- Cédric von Niederhäusern
Festivals & Awards
- Berlin International Film Festival (DE)Silver Bear Jury Prize, Berlinale Shorts
- New York Film Festival (USA)Spotlight
- IDFA (NL)Best of Fests
- Hong Kong International Film Festival (CHN)Official Competition
- AFI Fest (USA)Grand Jury Prize, Documentary Short
- Chicago International Film Festival (USA)Official Competition
- Galway Film Fleadh (IRL)Best International Short Documentary
- Villa Medici Film Festival (IT)Official Competition
- Leeds International Film Festival (UK)Official Competition
- Woodstock Film Festival (USA)Official Competition
- New Hampshire Film Festival (USA)Jury Award Documentary Short, NH Short Film of the Year
- Folkestone Documentary Film Festival (UK)Best Short Film
- Vienna Shorts (AUT)Focus
- Mumbai International Film Festival (IND)Best of Fests
- Virginia Film Festival (USA)Official Selection
Director
Fanny Texier
Fanny Texier is an award-winning documentary filmmaker born in Paris and based in Brooklyn. Specializing in vérité filmmaking, her experience as an editor deeply informs how she frames her cinematography: it’s her superpower. Fanny has filmed and edited projects for outlets including The New Yorker, BBC, VICE News, The New York Post, AJ+, HBO, Netflix, VICE on Showtime, BET.
Director’s statement
As a Williamsburg resident and close friend of Emilija and Ona, I came to know their home, one of the last original artist lofts in the neighborhood, as a rare relic of New York City’s past. When their mother passed away in 2021, and the twins received an eviction notice, they invited me to document their lives in the space that had shaped them. When Ona became pregnant, her grief took on a new dimension as she prepared for motherhood herself.
In crafting this documentary, I took a vérité, fly-on-the-wall approach to capture the twins’ raw and unfiltered experience of grief, motherhood, and sisterhood. At the same time, I followed the eviction legal process, tracing the contours of a larger story about the erasure of working-class communities in Williamsburg and across New York City. With this intimate film, I hope to provoke reflection and dialogue on broader issues of gentrification, and the importance of preserving community ties.
— Fanny Texier
Producer
Alison Joy
Alison Joy is a Brooklyn-based documentary producer and writer. She has developed and produced projects at Academy Award®-winning production companies including Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, The Documentary Group, and Story Syndicate for outlets such as HBO, Netflix, Nat Geo, and New York Times.
Her producing credits include the feature documentary Light Darkness Light (VICE Films, premiere at Sheffield DocFest, DOC NYC), the short film The Spiritual Exercises (New York Times Op-Docs, Vimeo Staff Pick, FOCAL International Award), the top-charting documentary podcast Svetlana! Svetlana! (iHeartRadio), the docu-series Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War (Amazon).
She is currently in production on a three-part series for Netflix with Story Syndicate and a forthcoming feature documentary with director Fanny Texier.