Judy Pokras
- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Judy Pokras was born in New Jersey, the oldest of three children, to
creative parents, Anne and Jerry Pokras. Her father carves
one-of-a-kind animal-figure canes from wood, and her mother paints
them. Her mother has also designed clothing, such as decorated men's
undershorts sold at Macy's Herald Square store.
As a child, Judy wanted to be a singer and actress, and was inspired by her Uncle Jack Spear who lived across the street, and produced, wrote and starred in a network children's TV show, Pip the Piper. Judy enrolled in an acting class, and played Gretel in a traveling show of Hansel and Gretel when she was a girl.
As a young teen, she took singing lessons, and performed a few times for audiences, but gave up her ambition to be a singer, feeling that she needed to pursue something more serious to help make the world a better place, a feeling she now realizes was misguided, as music is very healing. (She did later become a singer with her NYC rock band, Communism, in 1984, for which she wrote the lyrics as well.)
Judy majored in art at Pratt Institute, but while there, she realized she most wanted to be a film director, as it encompassed everything that interested her: Visuals, writing, music, decor, costumes, creative collaboration, and could be about anything that interested her. While at Pratt, Judy was cast as the 12-year-old brat, Lakme, in a Pratt production of Terrence McNally's chilling "And Things That Go Bump in the Night."
Judy left Pratt after three years and went to London Film School (LFS). But LFS was mostly about technique, and first made Judy appreciate how Pratt was concerned with the art as well as the technique. She left LFS after a year, and sought film-related jobs in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Before she even went to film school, she met Jean-Luc Godard, her favorite director, quite by coincidence, as she knocked on doors on NYC's West 45th Street seeking film work.)
Judy eventually moved to Princeton, NJ, to take a job as an assistant to a one-man film company, but quit a few days later when the boss made moves on her. Judy then became a journalist, working for newspapers at first, but never gave up on her dream of making films. A job as an editor of NYU's alumni newspaper gave her the benefit of taking free classes, and she loaded up on video production classes, with a major in video production and media studies.
In 1996, Judy wrote, produced and directed Anomalies (a mock Seinfeld episode) on a zero budget.
She has continued as a writer, of books and articles, and as a journalist, for many publications, including freelance for The New York Times.
As a child, Judy wanted to be a singer and actress, and was inspired by her Uncle Jack Spear who lived across the street, and produced, wrote and starred in a network children's TV show, Pip the Piper. Judy enrolled in an acting class, and played Gretel in a traveling show of Hansel and Gretel when she was a girl.
As a young teen, she took singing lessons, and performed a few times for audiences, but gave up her ambition to be a singer, feeling that she needed to pursue something more serious to help make the world a better place, a feeling she now realizes was misguided, as music is very healing. (She did later become a singer with her NYC rock band, Communism, in 1984, for which she wrote the lyrics as well.)
Judy majored in art at Pratt Institute, but while there, she realized she most wanted to be a film director, as it encompassed everything that interested her: Visuals, writing, music, decor, costumes, creative collaboration, and could be about anything that interested her. While at Pratt, Judy was cast as the 12-year-old brat, Lakme, in a Pratt production of Terrence McNally's chilling "And Things That Go Bump in the Night."
Judy left Pratt after three years and went to London Film School (LFS). But LFS was mostly about technique, and first made Judy appreciate how Pratt was concerned with the art as well as the technique. She left LFS after a year, and sought film-related jobs in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Before she even went to film school, she met Jean-Luc Godard, her favorite director, quite by coincidence, as she knocked on doors on NYC's West 45th Street seeking film work.)
Judy eventually moved to Princeton, NJ, to take a job as an assistant to a one-man film company, but quit a few days later when the boss made moves on her. Judy then became a journalist, working for newspapers at first, but never gave up on her dream of making films. A job as an editor of NYU's alumni newspaper gave her the benefit of taking free classes, and she loaded up on video production classes, with a major in video production and media studies.
In 1996, Judy wrote, produced and directed Anomalies (a mock Seinfeld episode) on a zero budget.
She has continued as a writer, of books and articles, and as a journalist, for many publications, including freelance for The New York Times.