Sara Halprin was an American writer, filmmaker, teacher, and therapist. This collection contains interviews and research materials the writer collected while working on her 2005 biography of photographer Seema Weatherwax, Seema's Show: A Life of the Left. Accordingly, the bulk of the collection consists of recorded conversations between Halprin and Weatherwax. Topics covered include Weatherwax's life from her birth in 1905 in Chernigov, Russia; her immigration to Leeds, England in 1912; her immigration to Boston in 1918; her involvement in the Young Communist League and later the Communist Party; moving cross country to Los Angeles during the Great Depression; her time in Tahiti in the early 1930s; working as a photography developer for Ansel Adams in Yosemite from 1938-1941; her marriage with writer Jack Weatherwax; her move to Santa Cruz, California, in 1985; and life in Santa Cruz through 2001. Forms of materials in this collection are digital files, MiniDiscs, and VHS tapes.

Sara Halprin was an American writer, filmmaker, teacher and therapist. Born Barbara Joan Sakofsky on February 19, 1943 in New York City, she legally changed her name to Sara Halprin in 1982. As an academic, Halprin received a master's degree from the University of Edinburgh and a master's degree and doctorate from Columbia University. She taught at several colleges including the University of Toronto, Marylhurst University, and Lewis and Clark College. As a writer Halprin published two books: Seema's Show: A Life on the Left (University of New Mexico Press, 2005) and 'Look At My Ugly Face!' - Myths And Musings On Beauty And Other Perilous Obsessions With Women's Appearance (Penguin Books, 1995). As a filmmaker and film critic, Halprin worked under the pen name of Barbara Halpern Martineau. She was a key political and intellectual voice in lesbian feminist criticism on the Toronto scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, writing a regular column in the Toronto women's magazine Broadside and contributing reviews and articles to Canadian film magazines such as Cinema Canada and Take One. As a documentary filmmaker, she was responsible for proto-transgender manifesto Keltie's Beard (1983) and Heroes: A Transformation Film (1983). Halprin settled in Portland, Oregon in the 1990s with her husband, Herbert D. Long where she studied and worked as a Process Work therapist under Amy and Arnold Mindell. She died from complications related to cancer on November 10, 2006 at age 63.

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Collection open for research. Digital files are available in the UCSC Special Collections and Archives reading room. Some files may require reformatting before they can be accessed. Technical limitations may hinder the Library's ability to provide access to some digital files. Access to digital files on original carriers is prohibited; users must request to view access copies. Audiocassettes were reformatted by the UCSC Library in 2022. VHS tapes and MiniDiscs are unavailable until reformatted. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media and digital files.