Allie Light (May 2, 1935 – September 17, 2025) was an American film producer, director and editor. She notably won accolades by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Career Light was the winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for In the Shadow of the Stars and the 1995 News and Documentary Emmy for outstanding interview program for Dialogues with Madwomen. She wrote, directed and produced documentary films with her late partner, Irving Saraf.
She served on the Media Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Personal life Light was born in Dove Creek, Colorado, on May 2, 1935. In 1953, she graduated from Balboa High School and married Charles Hilder before attending San Francisco State University. Having three children by the age 25 consequently contributed to a nervous breakdown, and she spent time in the Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1966, her husband, Hilder, died of lymphoma at the age of 32.
Light married film producer Irving Saraf, becoming his second wife. The couple formed a professional producing partnership beginning in 1971. Saraf died from Lou Gehrig's disease at their home in San Francisco, California, on December 26, 2012, at the age of 80.
Light died from heart failure on September 17, 2025 in Austin, Texas, at the age of 90.
Filmography +YearTitleCreditsNotes1977Visions of Paradise, Five Films About American Folk Artists: POSSUM TROT - The Life and Work of Calvin BlackDirector, Producer1980Visions of Paradise, Five Films About American Folk Artists: HUNDRED AND TWO MATURE - The Art of Harry LiebermanDirector, Producer1982Visions of Paradise, Five Films About American Folk Artists: GRANDMA'S BOTTLE VILLAGE - The Art OF Tressa PrisbreyDirector, Producer1983Visions of Paradise, Five Films About American Folk Artists: THE MONUMENT OF CHIEF ROLLING - MOUNTAIN THUNDERDirector, Producer1983Visions of Paradise, Five Films About American Folk Artists: THE ANGEL THAT STANDS BY ME - Minnie Evans' PaintingsDirector, Producer1981Mitsuye and Nellie, Asian American PoetsDirector, Producer, Editor1991In The Shadow Of The StarsDirector, Producer, Editor1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature1993Dialogues With MadwomenDirector, EditorProduced and Edited by Irving Saraf1996Shakespeare's ChildrenDirector1997Rachel's Daughters, Searching For The Causes of Breast CancerDirector, Editor, Producer, additional camera operator2000Blind Spot, Murder By WomenDirector, Producer, Editor, additional camera operator2001Desert DogsEditor2002 Children and AsthmaDirector2004Iraqi LullabyEditor2005Good Food Bad Food, Childhood ObesityDirector, Producer, Editor2006The Sermons of Sister JaneDirector, Producer, Editor2009 Empress HotelDirector, Producer, Editor2019Any WednesdayDirector, Producer, Writer2025The Ship That Turned BackDirector, Writer
References
External links
Allie Light at Women Make Movies