Abigail Disney

Early life

Abigail Disney was raised in North Hollywood, California, and was educated at Yale (BA), Stanford (MA, English Lit), and Columbia (PhD, English Lit). She is the daughter of Patricia Ann (née Dailey) and Roy E. Disney and granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company with her great uncle Walt Disney.

Filmmaking

She turned to the family business of filmmaking with a documentary film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, directed by Academy Award-nominated, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Gini Reticker. Pray the Devil Back to Hell brought to light the work of Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee by telling the story about the critical role women played in bringing peace to war torn Liberia. Pray the Devil Back to Hell won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008, and screened in 60 countries around the world on all seven continents.

In 2007, she and Gini Reticker founded Fork Films, a New York-based production company that seeks to shed light, evoke compassion, stir action and build peace. She is the President and CEO, and Reticker is the Chief Creative Officer.

In 2009, Fork Films and Film Sprout partnered together to create Pray the Devil Back to Hell's Global Peace Tour, a nine-month grassroots screening tour that culminated on the United Nations' International Day of Peace on September 21, 2009. In total, the tour brought the film to 31 foreign countries, 45 U.S. states and 235 U.S. cities. The film is broadly credited with highlighting the bravery and sacrifice of its lead figure, Leymah Gbowee, who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

The response to Pray the Devil Back to Hell led Disney to work on the five-part special series for PBS, Women, War & Peace, which aired in 2011 and was the winner of the Overseas Press Club's Edward R. Murrow Award, a Gracie Award, a Television Academy Honor and the America Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award (for I Came to Testify). This series created and executive produced by Abigail Disney, Pamela Hogan and Gini Reticker looked at the role of women in war in the modern age, not just as victims of conflict, but as active agents for peace in their communities. Also in 2011, Disney received an Athena Film Festival Award for her extraordinary use of film for social change.

Disney executive produced The Trials of Spring (2015), a major documentary event that includes a feature-length documentary, six short films, articles by award-winning journalists, and an ongoing robust social media conversation about women and their unwavering quest for social justice and freedom. The feature film, directed by Gini Reticker, chronicles the story of 21-year-old Hend Nafea, who sets out on a search for freedom and justice in a country gripped by a dangerous power struggle where there is little tolerance for the likes of her. The six short films were featured on The New York Times homepage in the six days leading up to the world premiere of The Trials of Spring at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York City in June 2015.

Abigail Disney made her directorial debut with The Armor of Light, which follows pro-life Evangelical minister Rev. Rob Schenck, Lucy McBath, the mother of teenager Jordan Davis, and John Michael Phillips. Jordan Davis was gunned down in Jacksonville, Florida on November 23, 2012. Davis was unarmed at the time of his death, and his story has cast a spotlight on "Stand Your Ground" laws in the United States. The film follows Rev. Schenck as he meets McBath, a pro-choice Christian, and her attorney John Phillips. It leads to the question: is it possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life? The Armor of Light premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2015 before opening theatrically on October 30, 2015. In 2017, it was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Community activism and philanthropy

Disney and her husband Pierre Hauser created The Daphne Foundation in 1991 in order to fund programs that confront the causes and consequences of poverty in the five boroughs of New York City.

In 2008, Disney launched Peace is Loud, a nonprofit organization that inspires action through media and live events that spotlight women leaders on the frontlines of peacebuilding worldwide. The organization’s mission is to generate a groundswell of people committed to building a culture of peace. Disney serves as the Founder and President.

Disney has made several overseas trips with fellow peace activists, including Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee. The two traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2011 to spend a week working with women peace activists and to explore ideas for building peace in their country. The following year, they visited Sri Lanka, where women activists launched the Sri Lankan Women's Agenda on Peace, Security and Development, inspired by Gbowee's legacy.

In 2012 she renounced her share of the profits from the Disney family investment in the Ahava cosmetics company whose factory is located in a West Bank settlement. She stated "I cannot in good conscience profit from what is technically the 'plunder' or 'pillage' of occupied natural resources..." For legal reasons she could not withdraw her investments and therefore donated the investments and profits "to organizations working to end this illegal exploitation."

In May 2015, Disney joined Gbowee and 28 other international women peacebuilders to cross the 2-mile wide De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea in an act of solidarity with Korean women and to call for an end to the Korean War. The peacebuilders headed international peace symposia in Pyongyang and Seoul, where they listened to Korean women and shared experiences of mobilizing women to end conflict.

Personal life

Disney married Pierre Norman Hauser in 1988 and has four children, one of whom is named Henry. She lives in New York City.

Filmography

Awards

Honorary Degrees

Boards