NYWIFT Women’s History Month Spotlight: January Green
Happy Women's History Month! At NYWIFT as we continue to celebrate our creative members who are making innovative impacts throughout entertainment, media, film, and television, we would like to spotlight our NYWIFT Women Crush Wednesdays Podcast team members. Today's spotlight is January Green, a Manager of Digital Marketing Copy, SEO & product description pages, aspiring screenwriter, and imaginative feature film writer.
READ MORERecognizing Our Shared Humanity: Idil Ibrahim on Her Film “Sega”
Women filmmakers throughout history have often been at the forefront of advancing social change, and NYWIFT member Idil Ibrahim is no exception. Ibrahim sat down with us to discuss the making of her award-winning short film "Sega" and how she hopes it might change viewers’ perception of modern immigrant stories.
READ MORENYWIFT Black History Month Spotlight: Taylor Re Lynn
Happy Black History Month! At NYWIFT we are celebrating the Black creators and artists in our membership, while honoring Black culture & cinema throughout history. Today’s spotlight is on our member Taylor Re Lynn, an actor, singer, producer, and philanthropist.
READ MORENYWIFT Black History Month Spotlight: Brianna Seagraves
Happy Black History Month! At NYWIFT we are celebrating the Black creators and artists in our membership, while honoring Black culture & cinema throughout history. Today’s spotlight is on our member Brianna Seagraves, an actress, writer, and award-winning producer. Brianna shares her acting inspirations and her directorial debut at the Billie Holiday Theater.
READ MORENYWIFT Black History Month Spotlight: Zainab Ali
Happy Black History Month! At NYWIFT we are celebrating the Black creators and artists in our membership, while honoring Black culture & cinema throughout history. Today’s spotlight is on our member Zainab Ali, an award-winning producer of independent film with a background as a senior recruiter for major corporations who transitioned into filmmaking in her fifties. Zainab shares career highlights and her favorite inspirational figures.
READ MORE“Work” Re-Tells the Mythical Story of Lilith with a Modern Feminist Twist
Two NYWIFT members have joined forces with a team of immigrant women filmmakers to tell the story of WORK, a short film written and directed by Aoife Williamson. WORK, a comedy-drama, follows Lilith, a musician scrambling to create a song in one day to submit for a job that could sky-rocket her music career. It just so happens that this day is a very busy day at her money job... and it just so happens that her “money job” is as a sex worker, named Eve.
READ MORENYWIFT Member’s MicroMania Film Fest Channel Reaches 80,000 Views in First Two Months
In response to Covid-19, NYWIFT member and film festival creator/founder Lukia Costello decided to take advantage of social-distancing by taking her film festival online. MicroMania Film Festival was created to be more than a one-off event and actively participates in amplifying quality independent short films
READ MOREWhat’s in Your Toolkit: Lisa Reznik
Traditional film houses are transitioning to virtual cinema screenings since art houses have temporarily closed their doors to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Learn what Film Society of Summit Founder Lisa Reznik found in her toolkit!
READ MOREWhat’s in Your Toolkit: Caitlin McCarthy
Writer Caitlin McCarthy's strategy when times get tough? "Routine is my savior."
READ MOREState of the Industry: A Conversation with Film Production Freelancer Isabella Olaguera
Throughout the coming weeks, NYWIFT will sit down with members of the film and television community for a look at how the global COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the industry, particularly those who work in the indie and art house world. Our first conversation is with NYWIFT Member Isabella Olaguera, a 1st AD who is organizing an initiative to help feed freelancers who are struggling. She shares her insight into how life has come to a halt with so many productions on hold.
READ MOREWhat’s in Your Toolkit: Sarah Barker
NYWIFT Member Sarah Barker is an accomplished and passionate producer with a decade of experience turning ambitious ideas into award-winning television and live events. Oh, and she also happens to be an astrophysicist! Yes, that's right: she is an astrophysicist, science communicator, and science-advocate, committed to enthusing people about learning. Sarah does this by creating engaging factual television, and enthralling live events. Sarah shared with us what she keeps in her toolkit, here on Earth...
READ MORENYWIFT’s Ekwa Msangi Tells Her Sundance Success Story
For Ekwa Msangi, the journey to Sundance was relatively fast. While her TV and movie-making career was moving along, it was arguably easier to get a footing for some of her East African-inspired TV projects in Kenya and South Africa than in the U.S. But thanks to the generous support of difficult-to-get awards from the Tribeca Film Festival, IFP and others, her career as a filmmaker catapulted into action when Farewell Amor, Ekwa’s feature film directorial debut, screened in the 2020 Sundance Film Festival U.S. dramatic feature competition. Ekwa talked to us about her experience at the fest.
READ MOREWhat’s in Your Toolkit: Dana Covarrubias
2018 NYWIFT Designing Women honoree Dana Covarrubias shares the tools - both literal and figurative - she keeps in her costume design toolkit.
READ MOREWhat’s in Your Toolkit: Jennifer Snowdon
NYWIFT member Jennifer Snowdon shares insights from her 25-year-career as a makeup artists and offers us a peek inside her makeup toolkit.
READ MORE“Ask for Jane” Producer and Star Cait Cortelyou Brings Women’s History to Life on Screen
NYWIFT member Cait Cortelyou has performed on stage or film since childhood but makes a breakthrough debut as producer (and star) of Ask for Jane, which screens at the NYWIFT Member Screening Series on November 19th. Cait sat down with us to discuss how a slice of women's history inspired her to make her producing debut, and what opportunities she sees for women working in the industry today.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Jill Salvino Brings LGBTQIA Documentary “Between the Shades” to Schools Nationwide
NYWIFT member Jill Salvino is an accomplished storyteller and commercial director with over 200 awards to her name, including an Emmy. But one of her proudest accomplishments is also one of her most recent – her feature documentary directorial debut Between the Shades. Profiled in The New York Times in April under the quippy headline “How Gay Are You?” the documentary asks just that, yet so much more. Salvino spoke to us about the process of making the film, working with her documentary subjects and what she hopes to accomplish with the film’s educational release.
READ MORECreator Misha Calvert on power dynamics, pitching and her latest series, All Hail Beth
In advance of the Fall 2019 premiere of her new BRIC TV series "All Hail Beth," showrunner and NYWIFT member Misha Calvert sits down with Leah Curney to discuss power dynamics, how to pitch your project, and how she makes connections in the business.
READ MORENYWIFT Members use filmmaking to support the next generation of women running for political office
On November 12, 2018, just one week after a record 117 women won their races for seats in Congress, seven NYWIFT members came together with She Should Run, a non-partisan nonprofit with a mission to expand the talent pool of women running for office in the United States, hosted by HBO. NYWIFT member Kristina Teschner, who participated in the program, recently signed on as the Co-Director of Creative Strategy & New Media at the Cabán for Queens campaign, and shares more about the natural evolution between filmmaking and political campaigning.
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