Margaret Rose "Midge" MacKenzie, (6 March 1938 - 28 January 2004) was a London-born writer and filmmaker who first become known for producing Robert Joffrey's multimedia ballet '' Astarte'' with the

Joffrey Ballet The Joffrey Ballet is one of the premier dance companies and training institutions in the world today. Located in Chicago, Illinois, the Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at Lyric O ...

, and ''Women Talking'', a documentary with interviews of Kate Millett, Betty Friedan and other leading figures in the US women's liberation movement. Family Group with Midge Mackenzie

Biography

After reading the work of psychoanalyst Alice Miller, MacKenzie started exploring the meaning of her own childhood and from this came ''Prisoners of Childhood'' (1991) in which actors brought out themes of pain and damage from early years. She made the wonderful ''I Stand Here Ironing'' (1980) based on the Tillie Olsen stories, and later a trilogy of films looking at remote communities in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. ''Saving Faces'' documented the patients whose faces had been reconstructed by surgeon Ian Hutchison, who is the chief executive of the charit
Saving Faces
Hutchison recalls, "She followed us around absolutely silently and made a film that said so much." After many years refusing her request to interview him about his World War Two documentaries, Hollywood film director

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

finally agreed to MacKenzie interviewing him at his home in Mexico, which became ''John Huston War Stories'', released in 1999, more than a decade after his death. MacKenzie organised and script edited ''

Shoulder to Shoulder ''Shoulder to Shoulder'' is a 1974 BBC television serial and book relating the history of the women's suffrage movement, both edited by Midge Mackenzie. The drama series grew out of discussions between Mackenzie and the actress and singer Georg ...

'' (1974), a 6-part drama series for the BBC recounting the struggle of the

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

s."Midge Mackenzie"
''Daily Telegraph'', 11 February 2004 MacKenzie had a severely disabled son, Bunny,(real name Luke) by

Frank Cvitanovich Frank Cvitanovich (14 August 1927 – 12 August 1995) was a Canadian documentary film maker, who made much of his best work for British television. Early years Cvitanovich was born in Vancouver, the son of a Croat immigrant. His father founded h ...

, born in 1967 who died, aged 11, in 1978. With Cvitanovich, she made a documentary about him called ''Bunny''. She died on 28th January, 2004 and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery MacKenzie, Midge 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacKenzie, Midge 1938 births 2004 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery British television directors 20th-century British screenwriters