Jenny Murray

This article is about the American filmmaker and researcher; not to be confused with Jenn Murray or Jenni Murray.

Jennifer Elizabeth Murray[1][2][3] (known as Jenny Murray) is an American filmmaker and researcher. She has made multiple short films, and wrote, directed, edited, and produced ¡Las Sandinistas! (2018),[2][4] a feature documentary about women who led combat and implemented social reforms in Nicaragua during the 1979 Sandinista Revolution and the subsequent Contra War in the 1980s.[2][5][6][7]

Biography

She graduated from Columbia University in New York, where she studied film, philosophy, Latin American history, and photography.[7] Murray is 'an Irish girl from Chicago,' as she put it herself.[8][9][10]

In order to fund her filmmaking, Murray has worked many jobs in film, television, fashion (for Marc Jacobs collection) and as a licensed associate on Watermill's stock trading desk in New York.[1][7] She started her career by helping friends make short film projects, including working and collaborating artistically with college friends on music videos for their band Vampire Weekend[11][12][13][14] She acted in high school and college friends’ student and independent films as a way to help out and learn about filmmaking before starting to make her own short films.[15]

She directed two short films – Last Chance, Bonne Chance (2013), a short film produced and created with her friend Zonia Pelensky. The film tells the story of two young women who want to escape their lives in New York and to accomplish that commit a crime.[16] She then made a second film, The Night to Make Believe (2014), a short drama.[17]

In 2018 she released her first feature documentary film, ¡Las Sandinistas!,[2][4] about women who led combat and implemented social reforms in Nicaragua in the Sandinista Revolution, in 1979, and during the subsequent Contra war in the 1980s, which saw them having to fight again for equality within and under the Sandinista government. Murray wrote, directed, edited and produced the documentary, spending several years researching, interviewing and shooting.[8][9][10][18] The film has been screened at a number of venues and has won several awards, including a Special Jury Recognition award at SXSW, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury prize, as well as two prizes at Brazil’s São Paulo International Film Festival, including the Best Foreign Documentary and Best Film in the New Director’s Competition.[19]

Murray has spoken to audiences about the film in many places across the world[5] including at Harvard’s Kennedy School, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and on CNN International.[20]

In recent years, Murray has also worked as a publicist in Los Angeles and as a researcher on the films and television projects of other writers and directors, usually co-writing or researching scripts for historical or political dramas or biographies.

References

  1. ^ a b "The Team". ¡Las Sandinistas!. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "Jennifer Elizabeth Murray on Vimeo: "¡Las Sandinistas! English Version"". Vimeo. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  3. ^ "Jenny Murray (@Jen_M_1) / X". X. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Las Sandinistas!". IMDb. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  5. ^ a b "¡Las Sandinistas!". ¡Las Sandinistas!. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  6. ^ "Jenny Murray Amplifies the Untold Stories of the Women in the Sandinistas Revolution". ITVS. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c "¡Las Sandinistas!". ITVS. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "¡Las Sandinistas! Director Jenny Murray". University of California Television. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  9. ^ a b "¡Las Sandinistas!". Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
  10. ^ a b "¡Las Sandinistas! Director Jenny Murray". YouTube. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  11. ^ Norris, John (July 17, 2008). "Vampire Weekend Looking More True To Their Name In 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' Video". MTV. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  12. ^ "Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". YouTube. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  13. ^ "Vampire Weekend, 'Giving up the Gun' -- Video Premiere - Spinner". Archived from the original on February 22, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  14. ^ "Vampire Weekend - 'Giving Up The Gun' (Official Music Video)". YouTube. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  15. ^ "Jenny Murray". IMDb. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
  16. ^ "Last Chance, Bonne Chance". IMDb. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
  17. ^ "The Night to Make Believe". IMDb. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
  18. ^ "Sandinistas — Lost Lives and Preserved Legacies". Washington Square News. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
  19. ^ "São Paulo International Film Festival". IMDb. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
  20. ^ "Film Screening Las Sandinistas". Facebook. Retrieved March 2, 2026.

Further reading

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