Abigail E. Disney (born 1960) is an American filmmaker, and scholar known for her documentary films focused on social themes.

Biography

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 his brother Walt Disney.

Disney turned to the family business of filmmaking after she met Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee in 2006. Her filmmaking career began with a documentary film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about women in Liberia, made with Emmy Award-winning director Gini Reticker.

In 2008 she launched Peace is Loud, an organization described as "supporting female voices and international peace-building through nonviolent means." In 2009 Peace is Loud organized a Global Peace Tour which showed Pray the Devil Back to Hell at community screenings in the U.S. and other countries. It was part of the United Nation's International day of peace. Peace is Loud also funded a 10-day project regarding "female peace-building capacity" three different cities in the US.

With partners Pamela Hogan and Gini Reticker, she produced the five part series "Women, War & Peace" which aired in 2011 on PBS. It was a 5 part special series that looks at the untold story of women in wartime around the world. Also in 2011, Disney received an Athena Film Festival Award for her extraordinary use of film for social change.

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."

Disney lives in New York City with 3 of her kids, Olivia, Henry, and Eamon, her husband, Pierre Hauser, and Leymah's son Arthur. Her daughter Charlotte now lives in New Orleans. She has a dog named Banksy, a turtle named Alfred, a guinea pig named Juanita, and a rabbit named Dale.

Best films