A great horror night in San Diego!

Brought to you by our good friend Miguel Rodriguez, founder of Horrible Imaginings Film Festival and the man behind Monster Island Podcast!

October Herror Fest: Directress #8

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:

Marion Kerr

Already a working actress/producer/writer, Marion Kerr added feature film director to her resume this year with her debut film GOLDEN EARRINGS. The intimate thriller made its world premier at my alma mater DANCES WITH FILM FESTIVAL (don't they have good taste?) and played last weekend at my friend and sometimes producing partner Jed Hammel's brand new festival FILMSHIFT in Boston.

GOLDEN EARRINGS also played Big Bear Lake International Festival, and won Best Horror Feature at IndieFest!

Where it DIDN'T play was at Shriekfest, Screamfest, Fantasticfest, Toronto After Dark, and all the other genre festivals that continue to assert there aren't great horror movies by female writers/directors.

But their loss is our gain. You can watch GOLDEN EARRINGS right now on my distributor's site INDIEFLIX.com for $4.95. Or you can buy the DVD through their site for $14.99...it comes with lots of goodies!





And my good friend and indie film supporter Nic Baisley at FILM SNOBBERY has a great video interview with Marion here.

October Herror Fest: Directress #7

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:

Aya Tanimura

You supporters are really digging the directors who have work available to see online, so here is Aya's 2010 short U-2074. Shot for $1500 in four days, U-2074 is a creepy installment for our October Herror Fest month. The dialogue was all a requirement of the Philip;s Parallel Line contest, but look at those Canon 5D visuals and the wonderful tension Aya creates! Her photography background is evident.

Aya's resume includes directing a documentary feature for Bill and Melinda Gates and being a top 5 contender in a different contest (Peter Jackson's YOUR BIG BREAK; follow the link to see that short). I'm sure we'll be hearing more from Aya soon...and hopefully in our favorite genre.

Also of note is U-2074 female Director of Photography Polly Morgan. Hollywood hires even less woman cinematographers than it does directors (I believe the percentage is around 3%)...so check out her beautiful portfolio here.

A big shout out to first-time horror screenwriter Julia Camara, whom I met five years ago in UCLA screenwriting. Julia wrote and directed the award winning short comedy NEVER ODD OR EVEN.

She also wrote a sci-fi feature film AREA Q which stars Isaiah Washington. I discovered U-2074 yesterday at LADY FILMMAKERS film festival because Julia's SCREAM MACHINE was there (A short her husband Tim Aldridge directed from her script). A Tabloid Witch award-winning short, SCREAM MACHINE is just beginning its festival run and is not available online yet.

You can read Julia Camara's fictional story JAIL BIRD online at Freight Train Magazine.

If you're here cuz you're a BITCH...

Welcome! Good to meet lovers of horror and women!

I feel so happy and grateful to be featured in lovely Hannah Neurotica's BITCH magazine piece on lady horror directors. And check out my good friends The Soska Sisters for their awesome blogpost about BITCH and Hannah!

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

October Herror Fest: Directress #1

It's October, which of course means there are no women who make horror films. So here's a fabulous, scary two minute short by a director/producer who doesn't exist:

Marichelle Daywalt

Marichelle Daywalt worked for years in the studio system on feature films classics like FIGHT CLUB and CAST AWAY. After a decade of watching and producing her husband Drew Daywalt's successful horror movies seen through outlets like Fewdio and the Daywalt Feat Factory's Youtube channel, she listened to his encouragement and gave horror writing/directing a shot. The tyro's result is the Viscera-winning short you can see in full here on Youtube:

MOCKINGBIRD short film

Drop Marichelle some encouragement on Facebook; she's got another horror short ready to shoot.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/axwoundradio "Radio Interview With Marichelle "AxWound Radio #3: Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter"

One of the many reasons I heart Maude Michaud

From her FATALLY YOURS interview for February's WOMEN IN HORROR RECOGNITION MONTH:

"A lot of people also see horror as a misogynist genre because of its representation of women, which I think is a shame because I can think of other genres that are way more demeaning! Romantic comedies for example! (laughs) If we stop and think about it, defeating a psycho killer is way more empowering than finding the perfect pair of shoes or the perfect boyfriend, no?"

Oui!

And she namechecks yours truly and my upcoming anthology I HATE LA. It's a good read; check it out.

Help my friend!

Rent my good friend and (Emmy Winner!) Barbara Stepansky's feature debut HURT...available everywhere and a new release last week!

And check out this amazing blog entry to get a glimpse into the mind of a film director as works on her second movie.


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Our friend is in the news!

Blake is one of the people behind the Atlanta Horror Fest, and a big supporter of THE COMMUNE. Yea, Blake! Congrats on the cool profile article!


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Help out a good egg

Go vote for writer/director/Final-Girl-founder STACIE PONDER's zombie short.

Flex Force 5

Check out maesto inker Corey Miller's surf psychobilly band Flex Force 5 He's the drummer.

Corey was super cool to me at High Voltage when I was on LA INK, and of course we got talking PISTOLERAS. Wouldn't he be fun??

Dan Smith!

Hey! Here's my tattoo artist!



He is indeed "very gentle". Check out his portfolio at Dan Smith Tattoos.com

Brenda and I were there...

and it was an amazing night of talent with The Commune's composer Danny B. Harvey and a half dozen of his handpicked guests. Shout out to Jenna Ross, (nee Jenna Cide), vocalist on many of Danny's tracks for The Commune. Amazing!

You need this "luxury"

If you are looking for sunglasses or wear prescription specs...even if you're from out of town...you MUST save your money and
GO to GOGOSHA.

The experience is described perfectly by Yelp users in this link...

The most important thoughts I want to leave with you:

1) Your glasses are on YOUR FACE. Every day. The single most important part of your body that everyone assesses you by. Whether your dateable, promotable, hireable, trustworthy, have good judgement, are likable. It's the thing that is most YOU.

2) You've never received expert customer service picking out your glasses before. Yes, even if you went to expensive places. Read these reviews and mull over your past experiences, and think how different it would be if you trusted the person in the shop as the WORLD'S EXPERT, and a PARTNER whose goal was to make you look like THE BEST YOU.

3) After falling in love with your new glasses, you'll feel embarrassed about what you've had on your face. So start now!!

4)If you're still not convinced, check out Julia Gogosha's blog of actual thrilled customers turning from ugly ducklings and frogs into swans and princes...her new before/after photos are SUBLIME ART.
Go go GOGOSHA!

Life Hacks from Brea Grant

My good friend Brea ran a great guests post of advice from me and mutual friends on little life improvements you can do for free. Enjoy the positivity!

And check out Brea Grant's appearance in Elle this month...hot!

David Lago on Young and the Restless

He's got his May sweeps appearance up here. That boy can kiss!

I'm having such a good day/night!

Some cool progressions with the movie, several of which I can't talk about. As always, you'll know when I can!

We have a fabulous new review up at Best Horror Movies. Pretty cool.

Hey, did anyone listen to my radio interview last week? Host Kurtis said it was super popular; had the most downloads. You can download the recording of WORST SHOW ON THE WEB's 6/15/09 episode to hear me talk for half on hour about THE COMMUNE and Chauntal Lewis losing her hand and becoming an activist. The hosts Kurtis and Harry, both Santa Rosans, were amazingly supportive and awesome. Thank you, guys!

Went with Brea Grant to the LA Film Festival to see HUMPDAY (Fabulous!) and finally met Mark Duplass (charming & brilliant...but more importantly, is his brother Jay single??).

(Speaking of film festivals, co-founder of DANCES WITH FILMS film festival Leslee Scallon has some great ideas about how we can support and increase female filmmakers' work in US festivals and at out multiplexes...she's a busy mom who's also still recovering from birthing the twelth year of DWF. But wanted to give you a heads up that she'll be guest columning here soon.)

Had a great planning conversation with editor Todd Miro about PISTOLERAS, then headed to the New Beverly to see the 2007 restoration 35mm print of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Still out of this world, but unimaginably better on a bigscreen with a worshipful audience.

B-day plans all week...it's a festivus!


Me and Randy Harris, talented writer/director of TINY LITTLE LIES.

A sonic scream from outside the Hollywood system...

By filmmaker Kate Perotti, it's MOMZ HOT ROCKS, a documentary on punk band member moms who are louder than their kids. Playing the Ventura Film Festival end of June.

What's on people's minds?

Just curious what you're out there thinking about, stewing over, laughing with...how's your summer so far??

Flip

Check out my friend's funny, multiple-award-winning 48 hour short film! Matt Orchowski was the key grip on THE COMMUNE, as well as playing two characters in the film. He's a great guy. And here you get to see his amazing work as his REAL day job: a talented DP!

Hit "full screen" to really see it:


Matt drove all the way out from Vegas to be at our world premiere! How cool is THAT? Can't wait to work again with someone so talented, tenacious, fun, egoless, AND supportive and loyal...he's got everything you need to "make it".