Boxing Helena

Jennifer Chambers Lynch (born April 7, 1968) is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for writing the book The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and for writing and directing the 1993 feature film Boxing Helena.

Lynch was educated in Los Angeles and Michigan (at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy) and, as a teen, worked as a production assistant on her father’s Blue Velvet (1986). She authored The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer to accompany the Twin Peaks television show (1990) and wrote an episode of the popular science-fiction television series Friday the 13th: The Series (also in 1990).

Her commissioned screenplay for Boxing Helena, which she would later go on to direct, attracted many actresses, including Madonna. Sherilyn Fenn ultimately played the part of Helena. Kim Basinger was also attached and was famously sued after walking away. The controversy surrounding that case, as well as feminist outcry over Helena’s sadistic subject matter and accusations of nepotism, accompanied the movie’s critical drubbing upon its release in 1993. Also in 1993, she directed the music video “Living in the Rose” by the British rock band New Model Army.

Lynch retreated from the public eye but came back into the spotlight with the film Surveillance. She was announced as director of the film Nagin (the film is also known as Hisss).

In October 2008, Lynch’s film Surveillance took the top prize at the Festival de Cine de Sitges. A month later, Lynch made history at the New York City Horror Film Festival when she became the first woman to win the Best Director award in the festival’s brief history. The festival itself has been in existence since 2001.

On March 21, 2010, Lynch was a judge at the International Surrealist Film Festival. She works as producer for the upcoming Corey Brandenstein natural horror film The Compound. —wikipedia