Roberta Findlay | |
Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Occupation: | Film director, cinematographer, producer, actress |
Roberta Findlay (née Hershkowitz;[1] born 1943) is an American film director, cinematographer, producer and actress.[2] She is best known for her work in the exploitation field. Her work has received increasing critical appreciation in recent years.[3]
Findlay was born Roberta Hershkowitz in Brooklyn, New York City to Hungarian-Jewish immigrant parents, and was raised in the Bronx.[4] She was classically trained on piano as a child, and her parents hoped she would have a career as a musician.[4]
While attending the City College of New York, she met Michael Findlay, a student who had recently transferred there after leaving seminary school, where he was studying to become a Catholic priest.[5] He asked her to perform a piano accompaniment for a silent film screening he was holding on the university campus.[5] The two eventually married and began making films together, with Roberta often working as cinematographer.[5]
By her own account, Roberta's marriage to Michael was tempestuous, and the couple were separated by 1974 due to him suffering "psychological issues."[5] Despite their separation, she continued to occasionally work with him professionally, including as cinematographer on Shriek of the Mutilated (1974).[5] Michael Findlay died in 1977 in a helicopter accident; after his death, she continued to make films, directing the horror films Blood Sisters (1987) and Tenement (1985).[6] [7]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Cinematographer | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | The Kiss of Her Flesh | Credited as Anna Riva | ||||
1969 | Crack-Up | |||||
1971 | The Slaughter | Credited as Roberto Herz Kowicz | ||||
1974 | Invasion of the Blood Farmers | Credited as Frederick Douglass | ||||
1974 | Shriek of the Mutilated | |||||
1976 | Snuff | [8] [9] | ||||
1985 | The Oracle | [10] | ||||
1985 | Tenement | |||||
1987 | Blood Sisters | |||||
1988 | Lurkers | [11] | ||||
1988 | Prime Evil | [12] | ||||
1989 | Banned | |||||
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Cinematographer | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1971 | The Altar of Lust | ||||||
1974 | Angel Number 9 | [13] | |||||
1975 | Anyone But My Husband | ||||||
1975 | Every Inch a Lady | Film also attributed to John and Lem Amero | [14] [15] | ||||
1982 | Liquid A$$ets | Co-writer | [16] | ||||
1985 | Shauna: Every Man’s Fantasy | Uncredited |