Diane Zander Mason
Lecturer
E-mail: d-zander@mail.utexas.edu
Office: UA9 2.112J
Phone: 512-471-4952
M.F.A., University of Texas at Austin, 2002.
Curriculum Vitae - PDF
An Emmy Award winner for her work on the documentary Moving Stories, Diane Zander Mason makes documentaries while teaching media production at the University of Texas at Austin. Her latest documentary, Girl Wrestler, follows Tara Neal, a thirteen year-old girl who wrestles boys competitively in Olympic-style matches. Broadcast nationally on the acclaimed PBS series Independent Lens, the documentary is distributed by Women Make Movies, the world's largest distributor of films by and about women, and Journeyman Pictures, London's leading independent distributor of topical new features and documentaries. Girl Wrestler was described by the New York Times as a “heartfelt documentary… adept at documenting Tara ’s complexities.” Zander Mason’s film and video work has been shown at festivals around the world and she has been honored with grants in support of her work from Women in Film, the Texas Council for the Humanities, the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund, the Liberace Foundation and the Caucus Foundation for Television Producers, Writers, and Directors. Her previous work includes Pretty as a Picture, Beauty School , and paternity is uncertain. The majority of her film and video work deals with gender and how female identities are constructed and complicated.
Most recently Diane was the series co-producer for the Texas PBS public affairs program Special Session, which follows the politics and antics of the state legislature. She has worked as an associate producer, writer, and editor for WTTW/Chicago, as a video journalist for CNN Headline News, and on numerous independent productions as a cinematographer, sound recorder and online editor. A summa cum laude graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in radio-television-film, she received her MFA in film and video production at the University of Texas at Austin.
