about
ILYA CHAIKEN’s
first feature film MARGARITA HAPPY HOUR debuted at Sundance in 2001 and premiered internationally at Toronto Film Festival the day after 9/11. Her second feature LIBERTY KID was about 9/11, and won Best Picture at the NY Latino Film Festival. Both received wide acclaim and were shown extensively at festivals and broadcast on Sundance Channel and HBO. Along with numerous shorts she has made the tragicomic web series THE UNLOVABLES, starring Kevin Corrigan & Eleanor Hutchins, after winning an award for excellence in fimmaking from the Princess Grace Foundation. She is currently directing her first documentary, PRETTY UGLY, chronicling the awe-inspiring female 90’s rockers Lunachicks. She is also a writer, editor, sketch artist, and proud member of the Purchase Mafia. She is based in Brooklyn.