Director Molly O’Brien debut short documentary, THE ONLY GIRL IN THE 
ORCHESTRA, dives into the remarkable life of her trailblazing 
double bassist aunt Orin O’Brien. She never wanted the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philarmonic, it was inevitable that she would become the focus of much interest and fascination. Now 87 years old and recently retired, Orin looks back on her remarkable life and career, insisting 
that a fuss should not be made, much preferring to play a supporting role to the family, students, friends, and colleagues that surround 
her. In the delightful short documentary, THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA, filmmaker Molly O’Brien beautifully captures her aunt Orin’s prodigious contributions as a musician as well as her unique philosophy that the key to enjoying life is to play second fiddle. Director Molly O’Brien (The Disappearance of Shere Hite), joins us for a conversation on her aunt’s seamless transition into “retirement”, mentoring young musician, her cinematic love letter that captures Orin’s passion, essence and perseverance…bottling it and offering it to audiences as a visual perfume.
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For more go to: onlygirlintheorchestra.com
DOC NYC SCREENINGS:
Thursday, November 9 at 9:15 PM ET @ IFC Center – World Premiere
Wednesday, November 15 at 9:15 PM ET @ Village East by Angelika
ONLINE SCREENING DATES:
Wednesday, November 8 – Sunday, November 26
About the filmmaker – Molly O’Brien — Head of Documentary, NBC News Studios Molly provides collaborative oversight to NBC News Studios new premium documentary business. Prior to NBC News Studios, Molly was the Executive Producer Special Projects at Abigail Disney’s Fork Films, and the founding producer of Sundance Institute’s Catalyst Initiative. She is an Academy Award shortlisted and a prime-time Emmy award winning producer with over two decades of experience producing documentary series and feature films. Her work has been featured on dozens of streaming and broadcast platforms, and has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, IDFA, and Full Frame Film Festival among others. In 2015, in collaboration with Kartemquin, O’Brien produced the successful six-month grassroots Indie Caucus campaign that resulted in keeping the non-fiction series’ POV and Independent Lens in prime time on flagship PBS stations across the country. In 2000, O’Brien won a Primetime Emmy Award for Producing Outstanding Non-Fiction Program (American High, FOX), was nominated for the Primetime Emmy in 2001 (American High), and made a 2010 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow (Cesar’s Last Fast, Netflix / Pivot / Univision). Additionally, she was the Supervising Producer for the Unilever branded short, #Selfie which won a Clio Image Award in 2014.