Ilya Chaiken and Jeanne Fury

Bio

Ilya Chaiken is an award-winning director, writer, and editor whose documentary, Pretty Ugly, about NYC’s all-female ’90s punk band the Lunachicks, premiered at the DOC NYC 2023 film festival. She has also made numerous features and short films. Her web series, The Unlovables, starring Kevin Corrigan and Eleanor Hutchins, is currently being adapted into a feature. Ilya is a member of the SUNY Purchase Mafia and is based in New York City.

Jeanne Fury has written about music since the early 2000s for publications including the Village Voice, Billboard, Decibel, and others. She co-authored the memoir/oral history Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks (Hachette Books, 2021) with the NYC punk band. Rolling Stone named it one of the top 10 music books of the year. She lives in Brooklyn.

Ilya and Jeanne first met when Ilya was making the Lunachicks documentary at the same time Jeanne was co-writing the band’s memoir. They quickly became each other’s creative confidante and biggest cheerleader, as they worked in their respective mediums to tell the stories of the band’s six members, past and present.