Tribeca and CHANEL have teamed up again this year to announce the second annual THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program.
This program balances industry support, helps with artistic development and funding for uprising female writers and directors of short-form narrative films. Tribeca and CHANEL along with Pulse Films selected five emerging female filmmakers to receive help on their project, participate in master classes, get a one-on-one mentorship and peer-to-peer sessions,
One filmmaker will be awarded full financing to produce her short film, plus help from Tribeca Studios and Pulse Films to make the project, and the other four projects will each be awarded grant funds to continue their films.
The program will take place over the course of three days, October 25-27, in NYC and will cover a variety of topics, including script-to-screen development, story structure, casting, finding collaborators, and working with music composers, costume designers, and editors, as well as festival strategy and distribution. Participants, along with one female producing partner each, will attend master classes, have individual mentoring sessions with industry experts, meet distributors, and new this year participants will work with writing mentors to refine their stories while working towards a presentation of their projects.
“We share with CHANEL the goal to bring to light the next generation of women storytellers,” said Tribeca Enterprises EVP, Paula Weinstein. “We are thrilled to be embarking, for the second year, on an intense three-day program created for these five extraordinary rising talents. They will be supported, guided and mentored by women who share with us the desire to foster the work of new women filmmakers.”
“Supporting these gifted women is paramount to our mission at TFI to empower a more inclusive group of storytellers and give them the tools necessary to reach wider audiences,” said Amy Hobby, Vice President of Artist Programs at TFI. “We’re excited to bring TFI’s successful model of pairing monetary backing with sustained, hands-on mentoring to this groundbreaking program, along with our friends at Tribeca Enterprises, for the second year.”
Some familiar faces in this program include producer Anne Carey, actor Dakota Fanning, director Tamara Jenkins, writer/director/producer So Yong Kim and actor/director Jennifer Westfeldt. Who all participated as jurors.
The mentors in the program include director/writer Shari Springer Berman, actor/writer/producer Rashida Jones, writer/producer/director Jenni Konner, director Tanya Wexler and producer Rachel Winter.
The writing mentors for the program include writer/director Sophie Barthes, director/writer Catherine Hardwicke, writers Janeika and JaSheika James, executive producer Susan Cara Lewis, writer/director Dee Rees and producer Cathy Schulman.
The master class advisors for the program include editor Sarah Flack, co-producer Amy Herman, composer Laura Karpman, casting director Avy Kaufman, costume designer Arianne Phillips and director Shari Springer Berman.
Finally here are the five amazingly talented women who will participate in the program:
CAMP MOONLIGHT written by Ani Simon-Kennedy. Away from home for the first time, Maggie is attending the only summer camp for children with a life-threatening sun allergy. When everyone goes for a celebratory night swim, she’s faced with a personal crisis.
Ani Simon-Kennedy is a New York-based filmmaker. She founded her production company Bicephaly Pictures with cinematographer Cailin Yatsko. Ani wrote and directed her first feature film DAYS OF GRAY in Iceland. She is currently in development on her second feature, THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE LONG ROAD.
DISPLACEMENT THERAPY written by Joey Ally. A young married couple, trapped in the limbo of “baby up or split up,” is trying “Displacement Therapy,” a controversial new treatment that uses lookalike robots as vessels onto which to displace their feelings toward each other…by using them as literal punching bags. As communication shuts down, and bodies pile up, they are called to ask themselves whether it is the symptom or the cure that will kill them.
Joey Ally is a writer/director and a 2016 fellow of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women. Her films have screened internationally including at Sundance, NBCUniversal Shortsfest, and Lunafest, and she won WME | IMG’s “Video of the Year” 2015. Her short film PARTNERS recently debuted online with “Vimeo Premieres.”
FEATHERS written by A.V. Rockwell. Eli, a volatile inner-city youth, creates havoc in his attempts to re-escape from the mysterious and crumbling juvenile detention center known as “The Mill.” When the repercussions become more dire than he can handle, Eli gains purpose and introspection on his troubled life.
A.V. Rockwell is a Jamaican-American film, television and video director from Queens, New York. Her most recent work, THE GOSPEL, a short film commissioned by singer/songwriter Alicia Keys, premiered at a special event during the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016.
ON THE OUTS written by Catherine Eaton. A wild agoraphobic from a backwater town in Louisiana travels to a hotel in New Orleans to work as a writer and is offered—ironically—a travel column. Terrified of open spaces and crowds and unable to leave the hotel, she realizes she can steal the stories of the hotel guests to keep the job and win the battle, if not the war, against her condition—all while throwing the lives of everyone around her into chaos.
Catherine Eaton is a director, writer, actor and producer. Catherine’s debut feature, THE SOUNDING — starring Teddy Sears (24:LEGACY), Frankie Faison (THE WIRE, LUKE CAGE), Harris Yulin (TRAINING DAY) and Erin Darke (GOOD GIRLS REVOLT) —will premiere in 2017. Catherine is developing two series for television, both finalists for the Sundance Labs. She has performed on Broadway and on screen.
THE QUARRY written by Sonejuhi Sinha. A gynecologist and abortion provider, Reese, practices in a remote town in America. When a threat emerges in town and Reese finds herself drawn into a rabbit hole of paranoia, she takes matters into her own hands.
Sonejuhi Sinha is a director, producer, and editor working in both narrative and documentary storytelling. Her narrative short film, LOVE COMES LATER, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and screened at over 50 film festivals internationally, garnering awards at festivals. She was selected for Shoot’s New Director’s Showcase at the DGA, is the recipient of a Tribeca All Access® grant, and recently participated in Semaine De La Critique’s development lab, NEXT STEP in Paris with her feature script Love Comes Later.
Just to show how amazing the women who participate in the program; last years recipient Wig Shop directed by Kat Coiro, just premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival. During the inaugural program, Kat Coiro met program mentor and actress/producer Emily Mortimer, who went on to star in the film and serve as one of the film’s producers alongside producers Lauren Bratman, Lizzie Nastro, Alessandro Nivola, Coiro, and co-writer Jessica Neuman.
Tribeca holds this program in hopes to inspire and empower a new generation of female writers and directors. The gender that is underrepresented finally has a chance to expand their creativity and get the opportunity to put their work on a big screen.
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