Born and raised in Upstate
New York, Brougher's career began in 1996, when she wrote and directed her first feature film,
The Sticky Fingers of Time. The film was an official selection at the
Venice,
Rotterdam,
SXSW, and
Toronto International Film Festivals. It was released theatrically in the U.S. in 1997. In 2006, she released her second feature
Stephanie Daley, starring
Tilda Swinton,
Amber Tamblyn,
Melissa Leo,
Tim Hutton and
Denis O’Hare. The film won several accolades, including the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the
Sundance Film Festival. Amber Tamblyn received the Best Actress Award at the
Locarno Film Festival for her role in the film as a sixteen-year-old girl accused of killing her newborn child. The film was bought by Lifetime Television and the title was changed to
What She Knew. In 2013, Brougher worked as director and co-writer with
Tristine Skyler of
an adaptation of
Jane Mendelsohn’s novel,
Innocence. Her most recent film
South Mountain, starring
Talia Balsam, premiered at SXSW in 2019. The film received mostly positive reviews with articles featured in
The Hollywood Reporter,
Variety and
IndieWire. She is currently working on the documentary
Striper about the art and life of Jay Rosenblum, an artist killed in a cycling accident in 1989. The film is co-directed by producer Maria Rosenblum, who is also the daughter of the film's subject. Brougher is a professor and full-time faculty member in the MFA Film Program at
Columbia University School of the Arts. She also chaired the program from 2019-2021. == Filmography ==