Josephine Decker

Raised in Texas, Decker grew up practicing Christianity but turned to Buddhism in her adult life. She graduated from Princeton University in 2003 and began her careering helping to produce documentaries for television channels like Discovery and A&E. Decker made her first short film, "Naked Princeton," in 2005, and co-directed her first feature with Brittany Blockman, a documentary about bisexuality titled "Bi the Way," in 2008. She received some media attention in 2010 when she was escorted out of the Museum of Modern Art by security after she undressed and exposed herself to performance artist Marina Abramovic. Decker later said she was trying to be "as vulnerable to [Abramovic] as she constantly makes herself to us." She made her film acting debut in "Uncle Kent" (2011), her first of many collaborations with indie director and actor Joe Swanberg, either with her or Swanberg in the directing chair and the other appearing on screen. In fact, she appeared in two Swanberg movies in 2011, the second being "Art History." Decker then made her second feature, "Butter on the Latch" (2013), a progenitor of her now signature dark thriller style. Touring on festival circuits the same year as her next film, "Thou Wast Wild and Lovely" (2014, which also starred Swanberg), both "Butter on the Latch" and the latter received critical acclaim; both films made it onto Richard Brody of The New Yorker's top ten films of 2014 list, at tenth and second, respectively. In 2018, Decker's film "Madeline's Madeline" premiered at Sundance Film Festival to high praise, giving her the most media attention she had received and making "Madeline's Madeline" her most high-profile film to date. Decker cited John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," frequent collaborator Swanberg, and films like "Antichrist" (2009) and "Black Swan" (2010) as influences.