Giovanna
Chesler is a Director and Producer of new media projects and documentary and narrative
films addressing themes of the body, sexuality, and gender. She received an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and a BA in Anthropology and Women's Studies from the University of Virginia.
Her new media work includes Tune in HPV, a web television channel for awareness, expression and entertainment around the human papillomavirus. Chesler's films include: Period: The End of Menstruation? (16mm,
54 min) a feature documentary on cultural and medical trends in menstruation which is distributed by Cinema Guild, New York,
BeauteouS: The Trilogy, an examination of three sisters and their relationships to beauty (16mm,
43 min) and hand-some, a reflexive documentary on a failing lesbian
relationship (16mm, 13 min) distributed by Canadian Filmmakers Centre. Her first film, BeauteouS: Stephanie was awarded the Gold Plaque Award for Best Student Documentary from the Chicago International Film Festival in 2000. BeauteouS: Giovanna was a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards experimental category and received honorable mention from the California State University experimental film competition in 2002. Chesler's films have played at over 100 international
festivals in fifteen countries.
Chesler is an Asisstant Professor in Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College. Chesler serves as a reserach and media fellow at the Center for Social Media at American University. She recently published an article on sound pedagogy in the audio video classroom (Jump Cut Spring 2007) and has a chapter on Frederick Wiseman's sound editing in a forthcoming edited collection on Wiseman's work. She works professionally as a cinematographer, having recently shot Monique Moumblow's Six Years which premiered at the 54th International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany in May 2008.
G6 Pictures, Giovanna's production company, comes from her name - Giovanna
Marie is the 6th in a matrilineal line of Giovannas.