The last golden age of Hollywood filmmaking, the New Hollywood, ran from the late 1960s through the late 1970s. This period is largely marked by male film auteurs, such as Arthur Penn, Hal Ashby, Bob Rafelson and Robert Altman. Joan Tewkesbury collaborated with Altman on several of his films, including McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971, as a script supervisor) and Thieves Like Us (1974, her first credit as a feature writer). She then wrote Nashville, which she had proposed to Altman prior to his filming of McCabe & Mrs. Miller; he became interested in the setting and sent Tewkesbury to Nashville in the fall of 1973 to observe the area and its citizenry. Tewkesbury's diary of her trip provided the basis for the screenplay, with many observations and incidents making it into the finished film. Nashville is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. In 1992, Nashville was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Tewkesbury transitioned into directing her debut film Old Boyfriends (1979) and acclaimed cable films including The Tenth Month (1979) and Cold Sassy Tree (1989). She had a very lengthy career directing episodic television from Northern Exposure, Doogie Howser, M.D., Felicity and Chicago Hope.Tewkesbury is regarded as a pioneer for women working creatively in the film and television industry. She forged a path when very few women were directing and was able to leverage her screenwriting skills to develop directing projects and assignments. She became an inspiration to many who felt that their talent and ideas were unappreciated by the mainstream industry.For the past two decades, she has contributed to the Sundance Institute with writing and directing workshops. Through these efforts, Tewkesbury has continued to mentor the next generation of female directors and screenwriters along with many others. She has also taught screenwriting, at the University of Southern California, with her screenwriting workshop “Designed Obstacles, Spontaneous Response” travelling throughout the United States, Israel, and Japan. Since 2003, Tewkesbury has lived in Tesuque, New Mexico.In 2011, Tewkesbury published her first novel, Ebba and the Green Dresses of Olivia Gomez in a Time of Conflict and War.This event is sponsored by the Harrington School of Communication and Media. For more information about Joan Tewkesbury’s visit to URI, please connect with Justin Wyatt, justinw@uri.edu.