Courtesy of Blue Ground Films
The documentary world lost a bright light on April 12, when Andrea Blaugrund Nevins died of breast cancer. I really admired her, and I was not alone: Andrea was greatly loved by our classmates, her colleagues in the documentary world, her family, and her many friends and the larger community in L.A.
“She was always that person that you felt like you didn't have enough time with,” said her longtime producing partner, Cristan Crocker. “Sadly, it still feels that way, with her passing.” Despite not spending that much time with her, her death is devastating.
Andrea covered a lot of ground in the subjects she pursued: her first longform documentary, The Other F Word, was about punk rock musicians who were also fathers. It was followed by two films about professional football players, then the film she was best known for, Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (2018), an important feminist look at the 2016 redesign of the iconic doll. After that, she directed Hysterical (2021), which portrays women comedians trying to make it in a man’s world, and then what turned out to be her final film, The Cowboy and the Queen (2023), about Queen Elizabeth’s genius horse trainer.
She was very curious about people, and loved highlighting subcultures, as Crocker told me. “The punk rock dads they profiled were like porcupines,” said Crocker. Underneath their tough exteriors was a real softness and sweetness toward their children. And a sense of going against type, which was typical of Andrea’s work.
“Andrea’s films, like their filmmaker, always led with the heart,” recalls director R.J. Cutler, her close friend. “She would enter unfamiliar worlds and find the great familiarity she shared with her subjects through her deep empathy and humor.”
Editor and co-producer Graham Clark says: “I think the strong thread connecting her films was her desire to showcase a pursuit for a greater good, whether on a grand scale or in intimate, personal ways.” She was interested in the people supporting the famous and the powerful, adds Clark: “the brothers, parents, designers, performers, and horse trainers who offered up so much of themselves, to lift up others.”
Cinematographer Geoff Franklin, also a longtime collaborator, puts it similarly: “I think she just saw the best in people, and she could see people being the hero of their own story. She would reflect that in the films.”
Speaking with a group of her longtime collaborators was a delight, though also deeply sad —they all adored her, and greatly miss her. She treated them as equals, not employees…always with great respect. “What I loved about working with her is that she always had this very calm clarity about what she wanted,“ remembers composer Craig Richey, who scored two of her films. “She had this beautifully nuanced understanding of what the subtext was and where we were in the story. I felt really trusted and encouraged to go play and be brave and take risks,” he adds.
I think of directing documentaries as analogous to leading a musical band—you may have the vision, but the other folks in the band bring their creativity, joy, and professionalism to support that vision. Most of her collaborators speak of her willingness to expand her own vision with their ideas, and what a joy that was to experience. In scoring The Cowboy and the Queen, Richey suggested that in addition to the main characters, he develop a separate theme for the horses, which tie the two characters together. “She just glowed when she heard that,” recalls Richey.
Nevins worked with younger colleagues fresh out of film school, and helped them mature in their respective crafts. Early on, she hired Graham Clark as an assistant editor, but he developed into an editor in his own right, and then co-produced her last film. “Andrea was very open to all opinions,” he says, whether it was her actual film team, her friend’s friend, or her own children all of whom watched various cuts of her projects. “She was a very giving director,” notes Clark.
Dava Whisenant, who edited Hysterical, concurs: “She was one of my favorite directors to work with in my whole career, because she was so positive and open, and she just made it a joy, even though I'm sure on some level she was pretty stressed out about things. She wasn’t a pushover, either.” They worked together remotely, because of COVID, finally meeting in person at the sound mix for the film. Unfortunately, COVID also kept them from an in-person premiere at SXSW.
Nevins used humor and comedy as a stealth mechanism for delivering deeper truths in her films. “We had different guys watch Hysterical, and they said, ‘oh my God, this is the first time I actually understood sexism!’” remembers Whisenant.
While I did not work with Andrea, I had my own experiences of her compassion and deep listening abilities. We had a very deep conversation about the film after a screening of Tiny Shoulders at Hot Docs, where the film had its international premiere. The film was a significant success, with reviews in the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, and other publications, and a streaming release on Netflix. It is a powerful investigation of Barbie as a symbol, brand, and talisman. I wanted to support her by attending a screening, but hesitated, given my lifelong hatred of Barbies, due to my belief that the doll reinforces gender stereotypes.
Andrea took the time to deeply listen to me, in the midst of a lot of hubbub after the screening. She later referenced my experiences in some of her press interviews about the film; she wasn’t afraid of the strong feelings the film stirred up, and honored the conflicting feelings in its audiences. Greta Gerwig also watched Andrea’s documentary multiple times and mentioned it as an influence on Barbie (2023).
Like any documentarian, Andrea was tenacious. “She was small but mighty,” says Franklin, who pointed out that in the middle of most documentary projects, there are times when it looks like the film will just not get made: “Like, now it’s really impossible.” But Andrea was never going to be defeated, he adds. “She was relentless. And if we were lost in the story, we were going to turn it over until we found it.”
Andrea brought her optimism and tenacity to her struggle with cancer, and remained hopeful and present while going through repeated rounds of treatment. At our 2024 college reunion, she gave a powerful talk about her insistence on remaining joyful throughout her cancer journey, which included misdiagnoses, challenging treatments, and other horrors. It left most of us in tears. I hope that losing Andrea inspires us to do more and reach higher, personally and professionally.
Andrea is survived by her loving husband, David; their children Clara, Charlie, and Jesse (all of whom are interested in film), and a wide community of friends and colleagues.
Nancy D. Kates writes and makes documentaries in Berkeley, CA. She is working on a feature-length portrait of the late queer activist Urvashi Vaid.