Sarah Pillsbury has produced many films including Desperately Seeking Susan and the HBO film about the AIDS crisis, And the Band Played On. She is also a founder of Liberty Hill, a foundation that supports grassroots community organizing. Pillsbury recounts what inspired the two very different career paths she has taken. She says she thought making Desperately Seeking Susan in the 1980s would quickly lead to many more female-helmed films -- which did not pan out, and she discusses the struggle making a film about AIDS in the early 1990s.
Photo by Christopher Ho