Frank S. Costanza

Filmmaker Treva Wurmfeld is drawn to feisty female characters. And in 2014, Becky Hill-Genia commanded her full attention. It was the way she spoke — honestly and openly, with a “no-time-to-lose” energy steeped in empowering philosophies and political ideas, Wurmfeld recalled.

For Pablo Picasso, there was Dora Maar. For Auguste Rodin, Camille Claudel. Behind Jackson Pollock was Lee Krasner, and for Willem de Kooning, there was Elaine. They were the women keeping the engines running, inspiring and supporting their famous partners by, in some cases, dimming their own artistic lights. Filmmaker Tom Dolby is ready to shift that narrative — reimagining the expected path with his first solo directing effort, “The Artist’s Wife.”

There is probably no subject talked about more on the East End — or one as divisive — as affordable housing.