Coverage of 2014 Labs
Here is a profile of NewEnglandFilm.com Story Labs Fellow Bianca Giaever and NewEnglandFilm.com’s nominees for that slot. Very hard choice and wonderful group of candidates. Congratulations to Bianca and looking forward to working with her this fall.
Filmmaker Bianca Giaever Named NewEnglandFilm.com Stowe Story Labs Fellow
13 Aug , 2014
Written by NewEnglandFilm.com | Posted by: NewEnglandFilm.com
NewEnglandFilm.com nominated five talented filmmakers and writers for a fellowship to the 2014 Stowe Story Labs--filmmakers Julie Perkins, Geena Matuson, Bianca Giaever, Lorre Fritchy, and Vanessa Carmona. From this select pool of nominees, the Stowe Story Labs jury offered a fellowship to filmmaker Bianca Giaever.
NewEnglandFilm.com nominated five talented filmmakers and writers for a fellowship to the 2014 Stowe Story Labs–filmmakers Julie Perkins, Geena Matuson, Bianca Giaever, Lorre Fritchy, and Vanessa Carmona. From this select pool of nominees, the Stowe Story Labs jury offered a fellowship to filmmaker Bianca Giaever.
Fellowship winner Bianca Inga Giaever is a filmmaker and radio producer.Her work has been featured on the NPR show Radiolab, websites such as Buzzfeed, Jezebel, The Huffington Post,The Atlantic, CBS News, and Short of the Week, at various film festivals, and at the TED conference. In 2013, USA Today falsely reported that she had a six-year-old son, and then subsequently named her film, the Scared is scared, “Web Video of the Year.” She attended Middlebury College, where she designed her own major called “Narrative Studies,” and graduated in the class of 2012. She is currently Adobe’s “Storyteller-in-Residence,” and is represented by United Talent Agency. She teaches storytelling workshops, gives talks, and is available for commercial work. Originally from Seattle, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York with her roommate, Cloe. Her film the Scared is scared will participate in NewEnglandFilm.com’s 2014 Online New England Film Festival (http://www.newenglandfilm.com/festival) in September. For more information, see her website at http://biancagiaever.com/.
Now in its second year, the not-for-profit Stowe Story Labs bring screenwriters, filmmakers and creative producers together with seasoned industry professionals to work on story, demystify the workings of the film industry, and forge new professional relationships. The three-day intensive program features: *Specific focus on participants’ projects, *Direct access to working industry professionals, *Opportunities to build knowledge, skills and insights to navigate the film industry, and *A network of talented peers, vital in this collaborative art and business.
Stowe Story Labs take place on September 13-15 in Stowe, Vermont. For more information, visit http://stowestorylabs.org/.
Bios of additional nominees
Vanessa Carmona is produced playwright and screenwriter who has been employed to LA and NY based production companies, literary management, and professionals for full service creative development, feedback, and critique. Her work has won, placed finalist spots, and gained international recognition. Most recently, her pilot script won the BBC Writer’s Room script contest which lead to a series option with a UK-based production company. She received a MFA in Screenwriting from Regent’s University in London and studied as an undergraduate at The New School in NYC. She also serves as an official judge to film festivals and other entertainment foundations where she mentors students striving to create film and television scripts with diversity in mind.
Lorre Fritchy is a writer-director who founded MasterPeaceProductions.com in 1997 during the production of her award-winning documentary Sandy ‘Spin’ Slade: Beyond Basketball. She then Executive Produced The Gay Marriage Thingdocumentary. Both films are in distribution. Her writing has been optioned by international producers and she has been a Winner and Finalist in previous script competitions, including Millies which recently won Best Screenplay honors from the National Writers’ Union. Fritchy is a freelancer and video production artist while working to fund her indie feature, Millies (www.MilliesMovie.com), a project that has earned the interest of Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis.
Geena Matuson is an award-winning writer, artist and filmmaker in the Boston area, with a recent BFA in applied Film & Video from Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Matuson’s studies are not limited to film, as the artist has also trained at the Danforth Museum of Art for six years, focusing on live drawing and portraiture, simultaneously training at The Potters Shop and School in Needham, MA. Matuson has shown her work in festivals and gallery shows throughout the United States and abroad, including work with RAW: Natural Born Artists, Germany After Dark Horror Festival based in Germany, CyberArts Festival, and her print work was part of a recent exhibition with‘PH21 Gallery’ in Budapest. She has recently received the ‘One To Watch’ Award in the 2013 Red Wasp Film Festival in Texas, and was a semi-finalist in the 2013 Adobe Design Achievement Awards for her short film Ice Cream For Breakfast (2013). Matuson’s work plays with color and light, with a strong focus on the concept of time, human psychology, and the dream state – reality versus surreality.
Julie Perkins began acting in Boston 20 years ago. In a desire for more ‘stage time’ she started performing stand up comedy Julie moved to NYC where she continued to act and to perform stand-up all over New York, a favorite being Caroline’s on Broadway. The Manhattan Theatre Source Company began producing her original plays and sketch comedy shows including, It’s Beginning To Smell a Lot Like Christmas! Julie’s Hi-Fi Christmas in Technicolor, Are You Happy Now? and her acclaimed Parody of Bing Crosby’s, White Christmas, Off-White Christmas. Five years ago Julie moved to Los Angeles and began writing screenplays. Her feature Length screenplay, Gone Again won, the international screenplay contest, StoryPro’s first place award for Best Drama. Julie hopes to find a producer for her latest feature Length comedy, So Long Lefty. Her dream is to have it filmed in and around Boston.