Alison Klayman

Alison Klayman is an award-winning director who makes movies about some of the most prominent people and stories of our time. Big issues, big stakes, and major historical events crisscross her films, even while she brings viewers into these worlds with a singularly intimate and humorous touch. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry showed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei hanging out with his cats at his Beijing studio and also getting assaulted by police for his activism. It was awarded with a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and put Alison on the NYT’s list of 20 Directors to Watch. Jagged drew from Alanis Morrisette’s personal video archive to explore what it was like to become a musical sensation at the age of 21. In The Brink, Alison followed rightwing strategist Steve Bannon as he tried to build a coalition of far-right radicals in the US and Europe. In his NYT Critic’s Pick review, A.O. Scott praised the film as “unnervingly entertaining…horror alternates with grim comedy.”

Alison brings this same effortlessly personal approach to her commercial work. That starts with precise casting and continues into production, where she blends a powerful visual style with genuine emotional moments. She has directed for numerous major brands, including lululemon, HP, HBO, Bose, Brawny, 3M, and MorningStar Farms. In the process she’s directed diverse talent from actor Ed Burns to hip-hop legend Stic from Dead Prez to Fortune 50 CEO Meg Whitman.

Her films have been shortlisted for an Academy Award and have received multiple prizes, including from the Sundance Film Festival, the Peabody Awards and the duPont-Columbia Awards. Her Netflix Original film Take Your Pills was an international hit, while White Hot was the most-watched film on Netflix’s platform when it was released. Her most recent feature, Unfinished Business, spotlighted the New York Liberty over a season on the cusp of the team and the WNBA going mainstream in US sports. It had repeat broadcasts on ESPN after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. While she is known for the breadth of her work and ability to make entertaining films on a wide range of stories, one subject she does like to return to is films about artists. In addition to Ai Weiwei and Alanis Morissette, Alison directed and shot an affecting profile of the Cuban-American painter Carmen Hererra who became a late-in-life sensation in her 90s, and captured Japanese florist Azuma Makoto as he sent his extreme flower sculptures to the bottom of the ocean and beyond the earth’s atmosphere. 

Currently based in Brooklyn, Klayman is a member of the DGA, BAFTA and AMPAS