Jill Godmilow was born in 1943 outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in Russian Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1965. She began her filmmaking career as an editor in the 1960s. As a filmmaker, Godmilow has made documentary and narrative films, as well as films that blur the line between the two.
Godmilow's first film was Tales (1969), which she co-directed with four other women, and edited. She then co-wrote and edited Traveling (1970) with David Himmelstein; directed Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1973); co-produced and co-directed Nevelson in Process (1976) with Susan Fanshel; co-produced with Ethel Raim and Martin Koenig and directed The Popovich Brothers of South Chicago (1977); directed With Jerzy Grotowski, Nienadówka, 1980 (1979); co-produced, directed, and edited The Odyssey Tapes (1980) with Susan Fanshel; produced, directed, and wrote Far From Poland (1984) in collaboration with Mark Magill, Susan Delson and Andy Tymowski; produced, directed, and co-wrote with Mark Magill Waiting for the Moon (1987); directed Roy Cohn/Jack Smith (1994), What Farocki Taught (1998), and Lear '87 Archive (Condensed) (2002).
In 1992, she joined the faculty of the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, where she is an Emerita Professor.
