Films, News, Women Directors

Tribeca Announces Second Through Her Lens Women’s Filmmaker Program

Credit: Tribeca Ent.

Tribeca Enterprises has partnered with Chanel and announced the second iteration of Through Her Lense: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program. The program “balances industry support, artistic development, and funding, for new and emerging U.S.-based female writers and directors of short-form narrative films.”

They have selected five emerging female filmmakers to receive project support in the form of master classes, one-on-one mentorship, and peer-to-peer sessions. The three-day program will cover script-to-screen development, story structure, casting, finding collaborators, and working with music composers, costume designers, and editors, and festival strategy and distribution.

The mentors include director-writer Shari Springer Berman (“10,000 Saints,” “American Splendor”), actor-writer-producer Rashida Jones (“Angie Tribeca,” “Black Mirror”), writer-director-producer Jenni Konner (“Girls”), director Tanya Wexler (“Hysteria”), and producer Rachel Winter (“Dallas Buyers Club”).

Writing mentors include writer-director Sophie Barthes (“Madame Bovary”), director-writer Catherine Hardwicke (“Miss You Already,” “Thirteen”), writers JaNeika and JaSheika James (“Empire”), executive producer Susan Cara Lewis (“Pariah”, “The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister & Pete”), writer-director Dee Rees (“Pariah,” “Bessie”), and producer Cathy Schulman (“Crash,” “The Illusionist”).

The master class advisors include editor Sarah Flack (“Lost In Translation,” “The Limey”), co-producer Amy Herman (“Noah,” “The Wizard of Lies”), composer Laura Karpman (“Paris Can Wait,” “Underground”), casting director Avy Kaufman (“The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Life Of Pi”), costume designer Arianne Phillips (“Nocturnal Animals,” “Walk The Line”), and director Shari Springer Berman.

At the conclusion of the program, the five women will pitch their ideas to a jury of industry experts. A selected final filmmaker will be awarded full financing to produce her short film, while the other four will receive grant funds to continue their work on developing other projects.

The jurors include producer Anne Carey (“20th Century Women,” “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”), actor Dakota Fanning (“American Pastoral,” “Night Moves”), writer-director Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages,” “Slums of Beverly Hills”), writer-director-producer So Yong Kim (“Lovesong,” “Treeless Mountain”), and actor-director-writer Jennifer Westfeldt (“Kissing Jessica Stein,” “Friends With Kids”).

“We are thrilled to be embarking, for the second year, on an intense three-day program created for these five extraordinary rising talents,” said Tribeca Enterprises EVP, Paula Weinstein. “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.”

The selected projects and filmmakers participating are listed below, with bios and synopses courtesy of Tribeca Film.

“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 fifty 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.

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