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Zeina Durra

Zeina Durra is a writer/director. She received her BA in Oriental Studies from Oxford University and MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Film Programme. Her directorial debut, THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!, starring the French actress Elodie Bouchez premiered in US Competition at Sundance 2010. Sundance called THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! " an exceptional work and heralds the arrival of Durra as an exciting new directorial talent" and Movieline labeled her, " Sundance's most fascinating filmaker, ". Warsaw also awarded THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! Best First Feature. Durra is currently working on her second feature and other art projects. "Filmmakers." THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. .

Maria Novaro

Novaro graduated from the University Center for Cinematographic Studies in Mexico City. Her first films, Lavaderos, Sobre las olas, and De encje y azucar, were made in 1981 with a super-8mm camera. Later that year she also became part of Cine Mujer, a Mexican film collective, where she directed Es Premera Vez. Her portrayal of the duality of female realities can be seen in films such as her 1983 film Querida Carmen, in which a young professional woman imagines herself to be Calamity Jane in her daydreams. Her best known film is Una isla rodeada de agua (1985), which chronicles an orphaned teenage girl's quest for her mother along the lovely Costa Grande. http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/principal/bio/0,,1972468,00.html

Image Credit: 
Image courtesy of Archivo/ELUNIVERSAL

Jennifer Sharp

Jennifer earned her BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. After winning numerous awards on the film festival circuit, Jennifer's feature film directorial debut, 'I'm Through With White Girls', has had a limited theatrical release through Image Entertainment in 2007. Other credits include: 'Boxed', a 12 minute short,  'Waiting', a 24 minute short, and a spec commercial, all of which, she wrote, edited, and produced as well. 

Patricia Cardoso

Cardoso directed the HBO feature Real Women Have Curves, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film also earned a Special Jury Award for acting at Sundance and became the first HBO film to be released theatrically. Her films have been shown at festivals including: Toronto, London, Sundance, Telluride and New Films/New Directors at MOMA. Cardoso has been awarded the National Board of Review's Excellence in Filmmaking award, a Smithsonian Institute Recognition Award, a UCLA Filmmaker of the Year Honor, the Youth Prize from the San Sebastian Film Festival, a California Governor’s Commendation and the Hubert Bals Fund from the Rotterdam Film Festival among others. As a programmer for the Festival, Cardoso was the director of Sundance's Latin American program. Cardoso has developed feature projects with Universal, Disney, Ciby 2000 and Open City Films. She is an active member of the Directors Guild of America and its Independent Director's Committee. She is also a mentor for Film Independent’s Project Involve. USC School of Cinematic Arts Directory Profile, Accessed December 12, 2012 http://cinema.usc.edu/directories/profile.cfm?id=25027&first=&last=&title=&did=1&referer=%2Fproduction%2Ffaculty.cfm&startpage=1&startrow=1

Leslie Harris

Born in 1961 in Cleveland, OH. Leslie Harris is a promising young American filmmaker whose first feature-length film, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., concerns a teenage girl's coming of age in the Brooklyn projects. The movie achieved recognition and acclaim for its writer-director at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, a major event that provides exposure for independent filmmakers. After being awarded the Special Jury Prize for Distinction at Sundance, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. was released nationally in February of 1993 to good reviews. The Washington Post called it a "breakthrough film," while Rolling Stone called Harris "a bracing new voice." Harris is a graduate of Denison University, B.F.A., 1982; and studied film at New York University. She worked for an advertising agency in New York City during summer of junior year at Denison; relocated to New York City after graduating in 1982; worked at various jobs in New York while writing first feature-length film script; Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. released by Miramax in 1992. Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/leslie-harris

Trinh T. Minh-ha

“…Trinh T. Minh-ha builds much of her work around the theme of the ‘other’ (the persona one considers him/herself to be in relation to), challenging cultural theorists' traditional notions of the subject or/subjected duality. She performed three year's worth of ethnographic field research in West Africa the Research Expedition Program of the University of California, Berkeley. This fieldwork led in part to her first film, Reassemblage, which was filmed in Senegal and released in 1982.”   -“Biography/Criticism,” University of Minnesota, accessed November 21, 2012, http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/trinhT.php

Image Credit: 
Image by Jean-Paul Bourdier

Annemarie Jacir

Annemarie Jacir has been working in independent film since 1994 and has written, directed and produced a number of films, including a ‘post oslo history’ (1998), ‘The Satellite Shooters’ (2001), and ‘like twenty impossibles,’ (2003). She has taught courses in Columbia Bethlehem and Burzeit universities. ‘Salt of this Sea’ (2008) was her first feature film and second work to debut at Cannes Film Festival. She also co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company that focuses on productions related to the Arab and Iranian world. Her 2012 film, ‘When I saw you’ has been selected as the Palestinian entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. Source:  Rasha Salti, The National, “Stranger than Paradise,” Institute for Middle East Understanding, September 9, 2008, accessed December 17, 2012, http://imeu.net/news/article0014155.shtml

Wu Tsang

"WU TSANG is a Los Angeles based artist and filmmaker. His artworks and performances have been presented at the 2012 Whitney Biennial and New Museum Triennial in New York, the ICA Philadelphia, MOCA Los Angeles, the Gwangju Biennial (South Korea) and upcoming at the Liverpool Biennial (UK). Tsang was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's “25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2012." -wutsang.com

Dominique Wirtschafter

This film is the directorial debut of Wirtschafter, who was previously a TV writer. Her father is manager-producer Franklin Lett and her step-mother is actress Della Reese, who is also in this film. Compiled from information from lukeford.net and Michael Rechtshaffen for the Hollywood Reporter

Image Credit: 
Image by George Pimental courtesy of WireImage.com
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