LISA CHOLODENKO

I had a nutty career. I was living in New York. Then I got to an age where my friends and sister were having children, and I started to think I needed to orient myself towards a world where it could happen.

In May 2006, I had our son, Calder. I spent the next couple of years learning how to be a mom.

Along my path, I've realized that this comedy/drama balance is something that's really interesting to me, and I feel, like, authentic to my voice.

I had pretty cool parents. Still do.

I have a deal with HBO to develop television, and I am also developing a movie called 'The Abstinence Teacher,' which is based on a book by Tom Perrotta.

L.A. is conventional to a hyper-real degree. It's plastic.

I think invariably when you are dealing with relationships, the films really center on that, and the plot is really born out of that. That's the most core part of a relationship: intimacy, I think, whether it's expressed or not.

At the base of it, my gut instinct tells me that there's a kind of fundamental misogyny in the culture. There just is. You know, there's just a weird anxiety around women.

I'm in my mid-40s now, and I came out in 11th grade, so I must have been 17. So that's quite a long time ago, and the temperature and the culture was different.

Not only does Annette Bening have a really lovely, deep voice, but she's also a great articulator. I think I'm more of a mumbler.

Wendy and I both wanted kids, but since we were pushing 40, the clock was ticking.

Making the choice to cast someone in a lead role is a big one. You don't want to squander your opportunity.

I feel like I've been observed as an individual more than a gay person, or as a filmmaker with a certain point of view rather than a lesbian filmmaker with a gay point of view.

I was very influenced by the films of the '70s.

If you write something that's personal, there's going to be elements of yourself in it.

I tend not to be so attracted to films that force me into an intellectual place over an emotional one.

There is a core value I wanted to illuminate: No matter what kind of family you have - straight, gay, married, single parent, separated, no kids, two kids, 20 kids, whatever - we all go through the human comedy. But if the bonds are strong enough, and the desire is there, you can get to the other side, still together and still a family.

I think for any artist, your voice is always evolving. For me, the constant is finding a tension or balance between drama and comedy.

I don't feel like my films are about gender; they are about identity - but a different slant on identity.

I don't know if my films are about women in a kind of frolicking - here's a grab bag of women's issues. They are about women of substance with very particular stories.

Boundaries get blurry and identities can get lost easily. It's easy to take your partner for granted.

This whole Oscar thing is so political. It's about how much a film grosses, and who's in it, and how well it has been promoted.

In June 2002, I had just finished 'Laurel Canyon' and decided to move back to Los Angeles after nearly a decade in New York. Post-9/11 New York felt different.

I was a student at SF State, and I honestly didn't know where I was headed. I thought maybe something in the social sciences. But I happened to be living with a group of people, and one person was a film student. I was always keen on and aware of what she was doing.

I get asked why there aren't more female directors all the time. I'm kind of reluctant to talk about it. That's not because I think the question is irrelevant or stupid. It's just that there are so many mitigating factors.