Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, has announced the filmmakers and film projects for its 9th annual Directors Lab, sponsored by Kodak. Taking place in Los Angeles from now until the end of March, the Directors Lab is an intensive nine-week incubator designed to assist directors with strong, original voices develop new narrative feature films, improve their craft, and advance their filmmaking careers in a nurturing yet challenging creative environment. This year’s Lab Mentors include Rodrigo Garcia (Mother and Child), Keith Gordon (The Singing Detective, Waking the Dead), Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Thirteen), and Alfredo De Villa (Adrift in Manhattan, Washington Heights).
“It’s exciting to have a group of filmmakers in the Directors Lab that not only have such varied artistic backgrounds, but also can bring a diverse slate of projects to the table,” said Director of Talent Development Josh Welsh. “We’re also so grateful to have Rodrigo, Keith, Catherine, and Alfredo sharing their expertise and guiding them through the directing process.”
In the Directors Lab, filmmakers are provided a cash stipend for their projects and access to production resources provided by Moviola, NBC Universal and MODE HQ. Under the tutelage of the Lab Mentors, filmmakers learn to work with actors, collaborate with cinematographers and crew, refine scripts and shoot scenes from their projects. They are also introduced to established directors and film professionals who serve as one-on-one Advisors throughout the eight weeks. The Lab is provided free to accepted filmmakers, and upon completion, they become Film Independent Fellows, receiving year-round support including access to Film Independent’s annual educational offerings, on-staff Filmmaker Advisor, and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Recent projects developed through the Directors Lab include Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka, Tina Mabry’s Mississippi Damned, and Scott Prendergast’s Kabluey. In addition, the deadline to apply for Film Independent’s Screenwriters Lab is March 1, 2010. To apply, visit FilmIndependent.org
The 2010 Directors Lab filmmakers and their projects are:
1.Dish – Israel spends his spring break walking around his East LA Latino neighborhood dishing and “sexting” with his high school friends about lust, love, hook-ups and break-ups. Not wanting to be outside the circle of his band of Emo friends, Israel must ponder whether he should just give “it” up already or hold out for that very special someone.
Brian Harris Krinsky is a writer/director and graduate of the MFA Program in Film and TV Production from the University of Southern California, and also holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. His feature film, Dish, is an expansion of his award-winning short film of the same name, which had its world premiere at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, followed by a European premiere at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival. It received an Audience Award at NEWFEST, a Jury Award at the Oslo Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 2nd place at the 2009 Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, and was short-listed for the 2009 Iris Prize for Best International Short Film held in Cardiff, Wales UK. Dish has been licensed for various DVD shorts compilations in North America, UK/Ireland and Germany. Krinsky is currently working as a freelance Producer/Director in non-fiction/reality programming. His network credits include programming for ABC, Bravo, MTV, BET, PBS, TLC, E!, and Travel Channel.
2.El Flaco – When a street-smart Chicano teenager falls for the daughter of a man he and his father murdered, the boy must choose between loyalty to his family and loyalty to his heart.
Jeff Seymann Gilbert is a writer/director/editor with a broad background of work in both film and television and an MFA in filmmaking from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Recently, Gilbert was awarded a Fellowship in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In conjunction with his fellowship, Gilbert’s project El Flaco won the prestigious Geri Ashur Grant, which is awarded to the foundation’s highest ranked screenplay. El Flaco is a quarterfinalist for the Nicholl Fellowship, won the Martha Muñoz Award from the Latino Screenwriting Competition, placed as a Finalist in the BlueCat Screenwriting Competition, and the Phoenix Film Festival’s screenwriting competition. Gilbert has also won the Best Director Award from the Chilean International Film Festival for his short Earl & Puppy, which played at some of the top festivals in the world. His documentary Pitch Man was a finalist for IFC’s short documentary award and was broadcast on PBS. Gilbert has also directed numerous digital shorts for Yahoo!, and has a long list of editing credits for networks such as National Geographic, History Channel and the BBC. He also edited the Academy Award nominated short film Chaperone.
3. Forbidden Steps – A liberal, Muslim American father is thrown for a loop when his 15-year-old daughter decides to dance. To save his relationship with his daughter, he confronts a troubled past involving dance, challenges community extremists and ultimately achieves a clearer perspective on family, faith…and dance.
Iram Parveen Bilal is writer/director and a graduate of the California Institute of Technology and the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, as well as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. As a Pakistani filmmaker, Bilal is conscious of the rare opportunity and voice she has on the filmmaking playground. She has directed short films and music videos that have traveled to international film festivals and has worked in feature documentaries thus far. She is currently working to bring her first feature film to fruition and has received encouraging responses from FIND, IFP, Sundance, The CineReach Foundation, The Nicholl Fellowship and foreign labs and markets thus far for her projects in development. Bilal is interested in working in fiction, reality, short and long form media on subjects relevant in both the USA and South Asia.
4. Grievous Angel – Drugs and sex and rock ‘n roll, jamming with the Rolling Stones, touring with The Byrds – this is the vibrant, dramatic life of groundbreaking country rock icon Gram Parsons.
Jessica Hundley is a writer/director, who recently saw the release of two books which she wrote and edited: an extensive overview of the photography of Dennis Hopper, from Taschen Publications, and a collection of photographs from longtime Michael Jackson photographer Todd Gray from Chronicle Books. Hundley is an extensively published film, music, art, travel and food writer. In spring of 2001 she wrote and edited her first book, a travel guide to Los Angeles, which spent three months on the L.A. Times Bestseller list, and is currently in its fourth printing. Hundley released her second book, Grievous Angel, with DaCapo in 2006, a biography of country rock icon, Gram Parsons. Also an established filmmaker, Hundley is a partner in the production company Draw Pictures, and has directed numerous short films and music videos, and penned several screenplays. In 2007, she wrote the narrative overdub for the award-winning documentary on architectural photographer Julius Shulman, Visual Acoustics. Recently, she co-directed and co-produced Such Hawks, Such Hounds, a feature-length music documentary on the American hard rock underground, and the film is now available on DVD.
5. Saigon/24 – Life in contemporary Saigon as seen through the eyes of a group of young people living in Saigon/24, a dilapidated eastern block style apartment building with an unpredictable charm.
Huy Chau is a writer/director, and was born in Can Tho, Vietnam. His family immigrated to the United States where they eventually settled in Westminster, CA, otherwise known as Little Saigon. Chau graduated with a BA in Film Studies from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Film Production from Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. He has produced, written, and directed several short films, which have screened at numerous international film festivals. Mr. A, a short film he developed and produced, was nominated for The Student Academy Award. He is a Berlinale Talent Campus Alum, Academy of Arts Scholar, and Fulbright Filmmaking Fellow to Vietnam. Chau spent a year in Ho Chi Minh City developing his first feature film, Saigon/24, which was a finalist for the Sundance Institute Writer’s Lab.
6. SarahN_12 – Obsessed with finding her boyfriend’s murderer, Sarah takes her investigation into the virtual world where she discovers his online doppelganger was murdered just two days before his real life murder.
Sasie Sealy is a writer/director, and alumna of the NYU graduate film program, where she was a recipient of the New York Women in Film and Television Scholarship and the Steven J. Ross Fellowship. Sealy started making films while still an undergrad at Yale, where her sketch comedy training and study under photographer Gregory Crewdson birthed the Super 8 film Big Head and a lifelong addiction to filmmaking. Her short film The Elephant Garden won a National Board of Review award and the Student Visionary Award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, making her a two-time Tribeca winner. Her previous short Dance Mania Fantastic has also been included as part of the IFP Buzz Cuts series, was broadcast by the Australian SBS network, and screened at numerous festivals around the world. Sealy also co-directed the feature documentary When The Season Is Good with fellow filmmaker Andrew MacLean, which premiered at the Smithsonian Institute and was acquired by ARTE, European Public Television.
7. The Prettiest Girl – A beautiful small town teen tries to win the affection of the boy she most desires while pretending she knows nothing about the disappearance of his younger sister.
Sasha Isaac-Young is a writer/director, and a published visual artist, writer and filmmaker, and holds a BA in acting and a BFA in drawing/printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis. Isaac-Young also studied acting and directing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and worked as an assistant dramaturg at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. While earning her MFA in film production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Isaac-Young directed a short documentary entitled Foster Stories, which was an exploration of the common experience of growing up in foster care. Foster Stories won Best Short Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival, and sold to IFC in 2005. While at USC, Isaac-Young wrote and directed a short narrative film entitled Little Valerie, a dark drama about a young girl vying for the attention of the teenaged boy who lures her away from her institutional home. This short script secured her as the only film student ever to be awarded school funding for directing both a documentary and a fiction film at USC. Little Valerie also sold to IFC.
8. Things We’ve Made – Set in the near future, a human clone shattered by the recent diagnosis of a genetic disease, embarks on a journey to find his original donor and the cure that can save him.
Trevin Matcek is a writer/director, and studied film production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Sylvia, his first 35mm short film, won the Gold Award for Best Student Short at Houston Worldfest, played over a dozen festivals around the world, and aired on Showtime. His screenplay Robots also took home Best Screenplay honors that year at Houston Worldfest. After working several years in post-production, Matcek began directing and editing music videos for bands such as Spoon and Clearlake. His 2003 “The District Sleeps Tonight” video for The Postal Service was Fuse TV’s #3 Video of the Year and was nominated by the Music Video Production Association for Best Video under $10,000. Most recently, Matcek has worked on campaigns for NFL Sports, Sony’s PS3 (Webby® award-winning) and Cisco Systems. As part of the Dublab Collective, the director has helmed Vision Version videos for artists Hecuba, The Excepter, and Baby Dee. In 2008, IFP selected Matcek’s feature script Things We’ve Made as an Emerging Narrative Finalist.
ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT
Film Independent is a non-profit arts organization that champions independent film and supports a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation, and uniqueness of vision. Film Independent helps filmmakers make their movies, builds an audience for their projects, and works to diversify the film industry. Film Independent’s Board of Directors, filmmakers, staff, and constituents, are comprised of an inclusive community of individuals across ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Anyone passionate about film can become a member, whether you are a filmmaker, industry leader, or a film lover.
With over 250 annual screenings and events, Film Independent provides access to a network of like-minded artists who are driving creativity in the film industry. Film Independent offers free Filmmaker Labs for selected writers, directors, and producers; provides cut-rate services for filmmakers; and presents year-round networking opportunities. Film Independent’s mentorship and job placement program, Project:Involve, pairs emerging culturally diverse filmmakers with film industry professionals.
Film Independent produces the Los Angeles Film Festival, celebrating the best of American and international cinema and the Spirit Awards, a celebration honoring films and filmmakers that embody independence and dare to challenge the status quo.
For more information or to become a member, visit FilmIndependent.org.
