Jenni Olson is an independent writer and non-fiction filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. Her two feature-length essay films — The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) — premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and, like her many short films, have screened internationally to awards and acclaim. Her work as a filmmaker and her expansive personal collection of LGBTQ film prints and memorabilia are held by the Harvard Film Archive (more info here about: Harvard's Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection), and her reflection on the last 30 years of LGBTQ film history is featured in The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2021). A 2018 MacDowell Fellow, she has also been widely honored for her creative writing and innovative non-fiction storytelling. Amongst Jenni's many honors she has been recognized with the prestigious Special TEDDY Award at the Berlin Film Festival for her decades of work championing LGBTQ film and filmmakers, and was also named to the 2020 Out Magazine Out 100 list.
Jenni is currently co-director of The Bressan Project, devoted to restoring and re-releasing the films of pioneering gay filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. She holds a BA in Film Studies from the University of Minnesota and her work as a film historian includes the Lambda Award nominated The Queer Movie Poster Book (Chronicle Books, 2005) and her many vintage movie trailer presentations (Homo Promo, Afro Promo, etc.). Jenni's film criticism has appeared in numerous publications including Filmmaker Magazine, The Advocate, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Logo TV’s NewNowNext.
A former co-director of the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, the oldest and largest queer film festival on the planet, Jenni also served as director of marketing at LGBTQ film distributor Wolfe Video for more than a decade — where she created the global LGBT streaming VOD platform WolfeOnDemand.com. She co-founded the pioneering LGBTQ online platform, PlanetOut.com as well as the legendary Queer Brunch at Sundance. She is also the proud proprietor of Butch.org.
Jenni is now in development on her third feature-length 16mm essay film, Tell Me Everything Will Be Okay and an essayistic memoir of the same name.
Press materials like film production stills and headshots on Jenni and her various projects can be found at this link. For an ongoing set of spreadsheets linking to press coverage of Jenni's films and projects, as well as her own writings and film criticism, etc. — click here.
