Andrea Nevins is a documentary filmmaker who brought sensitivity and depth to seemingly light stories about underdogs and unlikely heroes, including her punk rock father and the Barbie Dolls, who passed away on April 12th at her Los Angeles home. She was 63 years old.
Her daughter Clara said the cause was breast cancer.
Nevins received an Academy Award nomination in 1998 for his first independent project as a producer, “Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies,” a cabaret group made up of retired Southern California desert cities.
This film has all the features of her later works. The eccentric characters in difficult situations say meaningful things about life and how they live it through struggle.
Her first full-length project, The Other F Word (2011), was based on her 2007 memoir, Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life.
In the opposite of Palm Springs performers, Lindbergh was known for his aggressive stage presence and profanity lyrics, even when he navigated the everyday challenges of raising three daughters.
Working with the Leanfilm crew, Nevins was able to delve deeper into the lives of Lindbergh and other punk fathers, creating inspiring portraits that went far beyond the premises outside the water.
“What I discovered was that many of these people were really devastated by their father,” she told NPR in 2011.
The film was jointly acquired by Showtime Networks and Oscilloscope Laboratories, a company founded by Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys.
“When I first heard about the film about the musician's father, I thought, 'Yeah, it's not another film that everyone thinks I'll like,” Yauch said in a statement at the time. “But I was actually very moved and pleasantly surprised by it. And I'm glad that it didn't become my first instinct. It's a beautiful and moving film.”
Nevins was also known for his 2018 documentary, “Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie.” A search study of famous dolls that provided source material to Greta Gerwig when she and Noah Baumbach wrote the screenplay for the 2023 film “Barbie.”
The project sprouts came from off-hand comments by a friend who worked at Mattel. It makes Barbie: In the company, she told Nevins that she has an ongoing conversation about the location of dolls in culture, and that she has an ongoing conversation about how to adjust her image when culture changes.
Nevins and her team spent seven months persuading Mattel to persuade him. The documentary was filmed mainly in 2016 when many people thought America was about to elect its first female president. It was released in 2018 as the country tackled the #MeToo scandal.
“No matter what, Barbie knew it would be an interesting way to see where we are,” Nevins told the Los Angeles Times in 2018.
Andrea Brown was born in Manhattan on March 15, 1962. Her father, Stanley Blaugland, was an ENT doctor, and her mother, Annette (Weintraub) Blaugland, was a curator of the museum.
After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in social studies in 1984, she worked as a newspaper reporter in North Carolina and Florida, and as a producer in Washington for “All Things Considered.”
She also worked for the ABC News documentary series Peter Jennings Reporting, and was part of the team that won Emmy in 1991 for her gun control story.
In 1996 she married David Nevins, who became chairman and chief executive of Showtime. Along with their daughter, he survives her as well as his sons Charlie and Jesse. her brothers, James and Jonathan; and her mother.
Nevins made several other films, bringing his trademark sensibility to the incredible characters at critical life moments.
Both 2015 features, “Play It Forward” and “Happiness,” were featured in a 2014 episode of the sports series “State of Play,” which looked into professional athletes looking to move on from their sports careers.
Debuting at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, “Hysteric” has followed the stories of several women's comics to explore the role of gender in stand-up comedy.
And her latest film, The Cowboy and the Queen (2023), examined the likely friendship between Texas Cowboy and Elizabeth II, after learning about his unconventional approach to horse breeding.
“I loved capturing stories visually,” she told Hollywood in 2021 with the woman on the website. “In college, I watched Barbara Kopple's 'Harlan County USA'. That's what I wanted to do.
