Saturday, October 09, 2010

October Herror Fest Directress #5

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a feature by another director who doesn't exist:

Barbara Stepansky

A student Emmy winner for her brilliant short thesis film THE TROJAN COW, Stepansky is a writer/director/producer with a film masters from both AFI and USC. She cut her teeth on Christopher Nolan's no budget first feature FOLLOWING, and has come to the horror world via her skill at building suspense scenes. Barbara's seven figure feature directorial debut HURT is a for hire project that drips with atmosphere and pathos, and makes her one of a handful of women currently hired to helm horror projects over the million dollar mark.


While waiting for funding for her next for hire feature HYSTERIA, Stepansky made the no budget ghost story FUGUE, an intimate interstices of drama/thriller/horror mores that was so personal it was shot in her own home. FUGUE is currently on the festival circuit; you can check for upcoming screenings here. And expect one of them to be soon at my very own BLEEDFEST in Los Angeles, where I'll also be showcasing her amazingly taut retro thriller ROAD RAGE (Full disclosure: I'm a producer on RR...I can't help it if I have mothereffing talented friends).

"I have a hard time categorizing women in horror vs women in the film industry because I don’t really see that women directors in general get the proper recognition. The numbers of theatrically released films made by women hasn’t really risen throughout the years, and there’s only a handful of female directors tackling action or horror movies on a larger scale. Even though women have started to run studios and huge productions, this didn’t necessarily translate into hiring more women directors. I find the numbers out there quite discouraging but that definitely won’t keep me from continuing making movies." -Barbara Stepansky

Here is a recent interview with Barbara conducted by stalwart indie supporters Rogue Magazine.
Heidi Martinuzzi's FanGirltastic site has a new review of Fugue.

Rental Suggestion: HURT









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