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MARTHA AND ETHEL

Year: 1993
Country: United States
Run Time: 80 minutes

The subject is nannies-and not the "rock the cradle" kind. Director Jyll Johnstone didn't stray far from home to make this film. She began by documenting the woman who raised her: Martha Kneifel,her own nanny, a refugee from Nazi Germany. Johnstone's childhood friend and the film's co-producer, Barbara Ettinger, was also raised by a nanny: Ethel Edwards, the daughter of a black South Carolina sharecropper. Martha and Ethel are two very different women, two very different personalities-one a strict disciplinarian, the other a nurturing spirit-who made difficult personal decisions and compromises in choosing to raise other women's children. And MARTHA AND ETHEL is a profoundly moving testament to the intricacies of family dynamics and the joys-and responsibilities-of child rearing. By weaving together old photographs and home movies with contemporary interviews with the nannies and the (now-grown) children they raised, the film chronicles five decades of extraordinary love.

Director
Jyll Johnstone

Producer
Jyll Johnstone, Barbara Ettinger

Cinematography
Joseph Friedman

Editing
Toby Shimin

Principal Cast
Martha Kneifel, Ethel Edwards

Film Contact

Sony Pictures Classics
550 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10022
tel: (212)833-8833
fax: (212) 883-8844

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