Kate Novack
Writing
Biography
Kate Novack is an Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer of documentary films. Her film Hysterical Girl (The New York Times Op-Docs) revisits the only major case history that Sigmund Freud published of a female patient and considers the corrosive legacy of his theory of hysteria more than 100 years later. The film was shortlisted for an Academy Award and nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. New Yorker critic Richard Brody described it as "extraordinary...strikes at the very foundations of the field of psychology, and the historical failure to believe victims which has not yet been righted." Kate's feature The Gospel According to Andre (Magnolia Pictures), about the legendary fashion editor Andre Leon Talley, was named one of the top ten Queer films of the year by Indiewire and nominated for best LGBTQ documentary of the year by the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. A former print journalist, Kate wrote and produced Page One: Inside the New York Times (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media), which premiered at Sundance and was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys and a Critics Choice Award. Most recently, she wrote and produced The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong, featuring the bestselling Soviet-Jewish novelist Gary Shteyngart. Over the past 20 years, Kate has worked in a producing or story role on several films, including A Table in Heaven (HBO, History) and the Emmy-nominated Ivory Tower (CNN Films).
Known For
From the segregated American South to the fashion capitals of the world, operatic fashion editor André Leon Talley's life and career are on full display, in a poignant portrait that includes appearances by Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Bethann Hardison, Valentino, and Manolo Blahnik.
The Gospel According to André
Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of the transformation of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.
Page One: Inside the New York Times
In 1900, Sigmund Freud began treating a 17-year old girl he called "Dora." Her parents brought her to therapy after she accused a family friend of sexual assault. Freud's account of his sessions with Dora was the only major case history he published of a female patient. Intercutting his published text with a scripted version told from Dora's point of view, Hysterical Girl revisits this landmark case. Woven throughout are several decades of cinema, Congressional hearings, and media coverage. What emerges is a portrait of the grip that Freud’s theory of hysteria has had on popular culture over the past century and into the present day.
Hysterical Girl
Eat This New York is the story of two best friends' struggle to open a restaurant in the food capital of the world. As Billy Phelps and John McCormick suffer through financial crisis, the loss of their chef, and a crumbling relationship, the filmmakers turn the camera on New York City's legendary restaurateurs who prove that dreams can come true. Billy and John's gamble to open a restaurant together takes shape on Division Street, a unique block in Brooklyn that separates the Satmar Jewish community of Williamsburg from the Latino neighborhood of the South Side. During the course of a year, they convert a former check-cashing shop located under the elevated train tracks of the J/M/Z subway lines into a retro speakeasy. But before the restaurant is fully built they come close to bankruptcy and almost call it quits on their friendship.
Eat This New York
It began with a botched circumcision: Acclaimed author Gary Shteyngart tells his story of immigration, manhood, and seeking treatment for his physical trauma.