Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1932, Eila Hershon attended the Boston Museum School. She started her creative life as a painter whose figurative essays on the human figure were almost masculine in their solidity and power. Before giving up painting and turning to film- making in 1966, Hershon had been given eight solo shows in the United States, London, Germany and South America. Hershon relished the challenge of making film portraits of equally strong women, amongst whom were Coco Chanel, Estee Lauder, Helena Rubinstein and, notably, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.