Joan Micklin Silver, barrier-breaking director of ‘Crossing Delancey,’ dies at 85

Joan Micklin Silver, who broke Hollywood barriers as a writer and director, spotlighting women’s stories and exploring American Jewish life in movies including the low-budget comedy-drama “Hester Street” and the studio romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey,” died Dec. 31. She was 85. The cause was vascular dementia, said her daughter Marisa Silver, a writer and director. Silver launched her filmmaking career in New York in the early 1970s, when relatively few movies were being released theatrically and the industry was dominated by young male directors. While screenwriting work was available to women, directing was all but impossible.

“I remember going to see one producer from one of the studios,” Silver later told Filmmaker magazine, “and he said to me, ‘Feature films are expensive to make and expensive to market and women directors are one more problem we don’t need.’ “