# Jan Oxenberg

Jan Oxenberg (born 1950) is an American film producer, director, editor, and screenwriter. She is known for her work in lesbian feminist films and in television.

## Career

Oxenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950.
She attended Barnard College for two years where she was active in the experimental college, a collaborative, co-living, and self-directed schooling experiment between Barnard and Columbia University starting in 1968. Oxenberg transferred to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and initially she studied feminist art with Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro, but later transferring into the CalArts film school. In 1972, Oxenberg was one of the many participants in Womanhouse, the first feminist art installation and performance art (specifically within the art pieces - Three Women, Birth Trilogy, Necco Wafers).
In the 1970s, she was involved with ELF (education liberation front), a traveling educational resource, carrying information and books on liberation movements, racism, ecology and more. Around 1974, she was active in producing a radio series called "Lesbian Sisters" on KPFK Los Angeles.
She has also worked as a producer and writer on Pretty Little Liars. Other credits include Nothing Sacred, Cold Case, Kidnapped, In Plain Sight, and Chicago Hope.
Since 2013, Oxenberg has been adapting James Ellroy's memoir, My Dark Places for a screenplay and film production by Myriad Pictures.

## Personal life

Oxenberg is Jewish, and openly lesbian. Oxenberg has been out as a lesbian since the early portion of the second wave feminist movement. For many years, she dated musician Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

## Filmography

Film :
| Year | Title | Type | Role | Notes |
| 1973 | Home Movie | short film | film director | This film is regarded as one of the first feminist lesbian films and was shown at the Womanspace Gallery in 1973. It revisits old home movies but with a queer narrative. |
| 1974 | I'm Not One of 'Em | short film | film director | |
| 1975 | A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts | | film producer, film director, film editor | |
| 1975 | Films by Jan Oxenberg | short film | film director, film editor | |
| 1975 | Woman to Woman | documentary | sound | |
| 1986 | Rate It X | documentary | sound | |
| 1992 | Thank You and Good Night | documentary | film producer, film director | This documentary film is centered around a portrait of Oxenberg's dying grandmother, and about facing death. |
Television :
| Year(s) | Title | Type | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | Relativity | television series drama | writer | Oxenberg wrote the 1997 Relativity episode that featured the first kiss between two lesbian characters on American primetime television. |
| 1998–1999 | Chicago Hope | television series drama | film producer | (3 episodes) |
| 1999–2001 | Once and Again | television series drama | film producer, writer | (43 episodes) She wrote for Once and Again, which had a pioneering storyline of a lesbian teenage couple. |
| 2001 | The Education of Max Bickford | | film producer | |
| 2002 | Robbery Homicide Division | | film producer | |
| 2003 | Mister Sterling | | film producer | (3 episodes) |
| 2003–2004 | Cold Case | television series police procedural | film producer | (22 episodes) |
| 2006–2007 | Kidnapped | | film producer | (12 episodes) |
| 2008 | Long Island Confidential | | film producer | |
| 2011 | In Plain Sight | | film producer | (2 episodes) |
| 2013 | Pretty Little Liars | | film producer | (3 episodes) |