“The Girls in the Band” (documentary)

The Northampton Jazz Festival will kick off its 2026 festival season with a documentary film, “The Girls in the Band.” The 2013 film, written, directed and produced by Judy Chaikin, tells the untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their groundbreaking journeys from the late 20’s to the present day.

After the screening, Chaikin and GRAMMY award winning vocalist, Catherine Russell will lead a Q&A session with the audience. Russell’s mother, the guitarist, bassist and vocalist Carline Ray is interviewed in the film as one of the members of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm orchestra of the 1940s.

The film, which holds five awards from film festivals in two continents, tells the stories of talented female musicians who endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them. Interviews with jazz musicians Marian McPartland, Anna Mae Winburn, Dr. Billy Taylor, Clora Bryant, Peggy Gilbert, Herbie Hancock and others reveal the hardships that female musicians endured as they persevered to play and establish all-female bands such as The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

“As the Northampton Jazz Festival takes shape this year, we are proud that most of our bands will be led by women – instrumentalists and vocalists,” says Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival. “Even today, female led bands need to be presented with intentionality, and we honor the brave and determined women who kept playing their instruments and made a name for themselves during those early days of jazz in America.”

The film director Judy Chaikin is a graduate of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and is best known for writing, producing and directing the Emmy nominated PBS documentary, Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist.

In 2004, she received her second Emmy nomination for the documentary Building on a Dream and directed and co-wrote the short romantic-comedy film, Cotillion ’65, which has appeared in 40 film festivals winning Best Short, Best Comedy, Best Director and Audience Choice Awards. In 1996, Ms. Chaikin won the Blue Ribbon at the American Educational Film and TV Festival for the docudrama, Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman, featuring Julie Harris.

“I hope that the great joy we all had in learning about these amazing women will be shared by the viewers, and that the film will bring these artists the admiration and respect they so rightly deserve,” says Chaikin. “This film is my tribute to their courage and musical artistry, which has never been properly celebrated. It’s also an homage to my younger self who has never stopped loving jazz, music and the golden sound of a trumpet. My greatest satisfaction will come if this film can inspire a new crop of young female jazz musicians to stand on the shoulders of those early pioneers and to reach for the stars.”

Tickets for Northampton Jazz Festival Film Night are $15 in advance on Eventbrite (plus online ticketing fees) or $20 at the door. There will be a light dessert reception for guests at 7 p.m. For more information, visit northamptonjazzfest.org/jazz-film-night or facebook.com/northamptonjazzfest, or email info@northamptonjazzfest.org.