Directing Magic Podcast

In this episode of Directing Magic; Marquette is joined by Carmen Elly Wilkerson, director of THE REUNION. They discuss what it takes to push through to the next level in your film directing career, creating life balance and her new feature film project, #WHORE.

 Featured Links:

https://www.carmenellywilkerson.net/

http://www.thereunionshortfilm.com/

In this episode of Directing Magic; Marquette is joined by Shay Moore of Women In Film's PSA program. They discuss how she got involved with the PSA Executive Board, the benefits of the program to local charities, and her new entrepreneurial venture with Bootsy Collins.

 Featured Links:

https://womeninfilm.org/psa/

Savannah Rodgers is a director, writer, and producer currently based out of Lawrence, KS. She creates short films, web series, and is developing her first feature film. In 2014, she founded Professional Amateur Productions, a company aiming to create quality, intersectional feminist content.

Savannah received the Visionary Award from the Outlaw Film Festival and the Fred G. Andrews Emerging Filmmaker Award from Kansas City FilmFest in 2016. Her short film Sketches (2016) premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival; it has received multiple honors on the independent film festival circuit. Her directorial debut Politically Correct (2015) was named Cinema Constant's 2016 Best Comedy Short Film, and has garnered awards from Kansas City FilmFest, Kansas City LGBT Film Festival, and other festivals worldwide. Both Sketches and Politically Correct have received distribution at REVRY, the world's first LGBTQ+ streaming platform.

Most recently, she was a Top 10 finalist for the 2017 Horizon Award. She was a semi-finalist for the Sundance Institute's Episodic Storytelling and YouTube New Voices labs in 2016. Her proposed web series, Poly, was an IndieWire Project of the Day. Her documentary work has been featured on Films for Action. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Kansas City Women in Film & TV.

Savannah will also graduate from the University of Kansas in 2017. While attending KU, she has received multiple honors for her dedication to the film community, including the 2016 Bill Gilbert Award and the 2015 Loren Dolezal Community Service Award. She has also been nominated for 9 Tensie Awards through the University, winning two for Best Director (2016) and Best Screenplay (2015).

Rachel Goldberg an award-winning director who helmed the short film, MUTED, starring Chandra Wilson (Grey's Anatomy) and Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show) which sold to HBO. As a director, she has been supported by the Sony Pictures TV Diverse Directors Program, We for She's Direct Her Program, the Fox Global Directors Initiative and the Ryan Murphy HALF Foundation. As a proud participant in AFI's Directing Workshop for Women, she co-wrote and directed the short film NEIGHBORS which was developed into the feature screenplay, "Transformation Awaits." This script was selected for the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab, was a quarterfinalist for the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship (placing it in the top 5% of over 7500 scripts), won a Grand Prize in Screenwriting from the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was supported by the Sundance Women in Film Financing Initiative. Rachel has won over 20 awards for her work in film and theater.

Bridget Stokes is a filmmaker who currently has several projects in development through her production company, Instant Pictures, including feature film Emmett, which she will direct, The Lost Husband, which she will produce, and a television adaptation of The Volunteer. Bridget recently completed production on a comedy web series pilot she directed titled Picked Up and post on a short drama she directed titled Think Fast. The Volunteer, a feature Stokes produced, won the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Urbanworld Film Festival. Prior to that, she wrote and directed the feature film Herman & Shelly, which was acquired by Cinetic, and she produced the short film Coffee, which was an official selection at SXSW Film Festival. She has shadowed directors on Amazon's Transparent, ABC's The Goldbergs and CBS's Scorpion and has worked in film distribution at IFC Films, Elephant Eye Films and BEV Pictures, a company she co-founded. Stokes has worked in film production at Elephant Eye Films and as Research Coordinator on Jonathan Demme's Untitled Bob Marley Project. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Art Semiotics and Africana Studies and currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Jackie Stone is an award winning director/writer and a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of The Arts. Stone has a penchant for visual story telling, delivering poetic and precise work. Her films have screened at numerous festivals including the American Black Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, LA Film Festival Project Involve Showcase, Bermuda International Film Festival, Tallahassee International Film Festival, Durango International Film Festival, Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Sistas Are Doin' It For Themselves Film Festival, BERC Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, California African American Museum and HBO Network. Stone has won numerous awards and grants for her work including: the Jerome Foundation Filmmaker Grant in 2011 and 2015, New York State Council of the Arts, Warner Brothers Production Grant, Vague Production Grant, Kodak Production Awards and the Fotokem Post Production Grant. She received The Best Short Film Award for her short IF I LEAP from The Harlem International Film Festival 2013, and was an AICP finalist for her spec commercial work. She was both a screenwriting finalist for the Sundance Institute and the Nickelodeon fellowship. She was a Project Involve Directing Fellow 2012-2013 and now serves as CEO and Chief Content Creator of Enchant TV, a digital network.

Alberlynne Harris, affectionately known as Abby, is a native of Los Angeles, California. She continues to defy labels and categories while remaining active with and inspired by various civic and socially conscious organizations. As an A Better Chance alumna of the Harvard-Westlake School Abby received her Bachelors of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

She returned home to complete the JD/MBA program at the University of Southern California. She recently completed a long term project hire assignment as a Manager of Branded Integrations for Maker Studios (a Disney Company) where her clients included Disney Parks and Disney Interactive (Gaming). She is currently consulting for the BSIDE Agency, a service provider connecting African American Influencers with brands and advertisers.

Her community involvement as immediate President of the Harvard-Westlake African-American Alumni Association Network and continued dedication to the Los Angeles Urban League Young Professionals as well as to the Black Public Relations Society of Los Angeles keep her busy.

In addition to loving her growing family of three brothers, mom, dad, two nieces and three nephews, Abby spends time building a film and television production company, Quartermain Media, with her life partner, James Woods, Jr. She also enjoys wine and cheese tasting, live music performances, and cooking.