CLAUDIA WEILL

With a camera on my shoulder, I can let you see what I see. – Claudia Weill

A beacon of light in American independent filmmaking, Claudia Weill paved the way for all the best friends we celebrate today. Her landmark 1978 feature Girlfriends reframed female intimacy in a new light, but also finally put the best friend, the sidekick, centre stage. The girl who isn’t married, who isn’t perfect, who is still creating her own life and figuring herself out. 

What Weill did with Girlfriends laid the blueprint for the likes of Frances Ha, The Virgin Suicides, Booksmart and so many more. The American filmmaker captured the lightning in a bottle that is life in New York, and the intricacies of female relationships that hold contradictions and complexities, with wit and candour and always striking honesty. 

The work of Claudia Weill is instrumental in our modern understanding of feminist teachings, and it taught us so many values we’re proud to share at Girls on Tops. To mark the arrival of our friend Anahit Behrooz’s first book BFFs: The Radical Potential Of Female Friendship, Claudia Weill joins the family.