NYWIFT Creative Showcase: Members at the 2024 SOHO International Film Festival

The NYWIFT Member Screening Series comes to SOHO International Film Festival with a selection of five short films showcasing talented members of the New York Women in Film & Television community in key creative roles. Showcase screening followed by a conversation with the artists.

Date: Friday, September 20, 2024
Time: 2:30 – 4 PM
Location: Village East by Angelika, 181-189 2nd Ave, NYC
Cost: $5 minimum (pay-what-you-can)

Networking social to follow! 

Tix are pay-what-you-can with a $5 minimum.

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About the Films

The House of LeBeija
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor: NYWIFT Member Fredgy Noël
2022, Documentary, 10 min

Meet the House of LeBeija, a prominent ballroom family and safe haven for transgender women, queer people, and those in need of community.

Fredgy Noël’s work utilizes compelling visuals, rhythmic sounds, powerful graphics, and color grades, drawing on her background in dance to uncover the lyrical truth at the core of her stories. Exploring themes around women and marginalized voices, Noël’s films are an extension of how she sees the world in all its nuance, complexity, and beauty. She’s made moving call-to-action content for non-profits like Black Girls Rock and Planned Parenthood, and her esteemed branded clients include Doc Martens, Jergens, Vaseline, Warner Bros Discovery, MTV, VH1, BET, and NBCUniversal. The winner of a Clio Bronze and a Promax Gold award, Noël’s films have screened at numerous Academy Award-qualifying festivals and prestige film societies, including the Tribeca Film Festival, the British Film Institute, Outfest, DocNYC, and Bozar.  Noël spent her formative years in Haiti, Washington DC, and Miami, where filmmaking shaped her from an early age: she learned English from watching music videos in the late ‘80s and started working on original video treatments for songs as early as age 9. After college, she moved to New York City, where she worked at MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, and BET while discovering her life’s creative passion. She soon pivoted her focus to writing and directing short films and documentaries and pursued an MFA from Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts program. She’s currently a graduate student at NYU’s prestigious Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. 

Night Waking
Director: Shoshana Rosenbaum (WIFV-DC Member)
Writer: NYWIFT Member Liz Maestri
Producer: NYWIFT Member Robin Noonan-Price
2020, Sci-Fi Horror, 8 min

Is this the routine stress of an evening at home with two young children? Or is something more going on tonight with Ari and her wife Miriam? As the moms of two young children, Ari and Miriam struggle with how to best be true to themselves, each other and their kids as time ticks away.

Shoshana Rosenbaum is a writer/director based in Washington, D.C. In May 2021, she was named DC Filmmaker of the Month. Shoshana was an inaugural member of the 2021 Destroy All Boundaries Directing Mentorship with Adam Egypt Mortimer and Jordan Crucchiola. Her feature film directing debut is THE OTHER YOU. Her latest feature script, A.I.L.A. is an exploration of how A.I. will change our families. Her feature film script THE LAMIA is a #MeToo supernatural thriller about shape-shifting snake women who take out bad men. Her feature screenplay AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS was recognized by The Bitch List (as THE GOBLIN CHILD) and was previously in development with AMP Productions and director Danishka Esterhazy. With her family-friendly horror script THE CREEPY HOUSE, Shoshana was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition. Shoshana’s most recent short film, NIGHT WAKING was named Best Sci Fi Film at the Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival. Her award-winning short films THE GOBLIN BABY and HIDE AND SEEK have screened at festivals around the U.S. and internationally. Her screenplays have been recognized by the Nashville Film Festival, Hollyshorts Film Festival, DC Shorts Film Festival, and Asian Pacific American Film Festival.

Liz Maestri is a Brooklyn-based playwright/screenwriter. Recent film/TV projects include COLLEGIATE (Stowe Story Labs/Maven Fellowship Finalist), NIGHT WAKING (dir Shoshana Rosenbaum), THE LAUGHING CLUB (dir Jason Lobe), and webisode “Together Alone” for Round House Theatre’s HOMEBOUND. Plays include THE ICE ROOM (Fearless New Play Festival), SINNER-MAN (O’Neill NPC Finalist; Princess Grace Award Semifinalist), and CONDO CONDO CONDOLAND (Old Sound Room), among others. Liz is a NYWIFT member and an alum of Playwrights’ Arena (American Voices New Play Institute), Playwrights Collective (Center Stage), and the 24 With 5 Collective (New Dramatists). M.F.A., 2018. www.lizmaestri.com.

With an M.A. in Film and Video Production from The American University, Robin Noonan-Price has been working with local DC metro filmmakers on short films for more than 10 years. She is a past president of Women in Film and Video, DC, an organization with a large membership base of highly motivated and experienced local talent, and continues to be involved with the organization. She recently produced and directed Tell Me About Orange, which has been featured in 18 film festivals in the US and abroad. She is a five-time Emmy Award Nominee, a five-time Telly Award winner and has earned three TIVA-DC Peer Awards. In her 20+ years as a full-time producer/director for Fairfax County Public Schools, she produced MEET THE AUTHOR, a live web streamed, distance learning program that promotes literacy and gives students, nationally, direct access to some of their favorite writers. Transitioning from full-time work in education, she has recently launched Robin’s Nest Media Productions, which continues to support media makers young and old to ensure that their stories are told.

The Duke and Duchess of Queens
Writer/Director: NYWIFT Member Jezabel Montero
2022, Dramedy, 20 min

Childhood sweethearts Delilah and James find themselves at a crossroads when James ends up in the hospital and Dee is his only emergency contact. After ten years of lost time, they reminisce and connect with their traumatic, yet nostalgic pasts, realizing their future together may not be so lost after all.

Jezabel Montero has been a professional artist in the entertainment industry since she was a child. Born and raised in New York city to immigrant Cuban parents, she began as a bilingual actor. She is a Cum Laude graduate from U.C.L.A., receiving her B.A. in Theatre. Jezabel decided to take her career into her own hands – after not being given the opportunity to play the roles that she wanted to play as an actor and finding herself with less work because she was hitting middle age – she didn’t see enough stories about her and her life being represented on the small or big screen. She had a background as a writer, in improv and comedy, so she decided to start her own film company and make her own films to push those boundaries. Jezabel works behind the scenes, as director, writer and and producer of both theatre and film. She was co-founder and artistic director of Kismet Theatre Company in Hoboken, NJ, in which she produced and directed several events and shows. In 2007, she started her own film production company, Fuacata Films, and completed several projects under her company name. Credits with her film company, as director, writer, and/or producer include: Blondes Are Latin Too, The Basement, Re-Evolution: The Cuban Dream, The So-So You Don’t Know, Lies & Oblivion: Session’s Vocal Unit, Cassanova Was A Woman and Death of a Fool. All of her projects have gone on to distribution and have themes of diversity (Latina, women, LGBTQ). They are all projects with the mission of inclusion, both in front of and behind the camera. They have won many awards in “Best of” categories at film festivals across the globe.  

Falling Planes
Director: Cameron Raser
Lead Actor: NYWIFT Member Molly Gazay
2019, Drama, 22 min

Molly Gazay portrays Lindsey, a struggling single mother who supports her son through an opioid addiction, searches for hope, strength and purpose as she looks deeper into the memories they share. Based on true events.

Molly Gazay is a Multi Award Winning Actor and Singer with several wins & nominations for both acting and screen writing. Molly has been seen in several crime drama’s and comedies including “Girl Boxer” a TV Pilot which has been seen at SeriesFest 2020, Chelsea Film Festival, NYCTV & many more. She wrote an original song for the TV Pilot & is writing a the title song for “Ms. Pink” a short film by Lauren McCann & Urban Art House Films. A blood traveler with a long standing history of circus ancestors, she feels a kindred spirit with the disenfranchised, misunderstood, off-beat characters in films and has a deep attraction to characters from “the wrong side of the tracks” as well as the oddball who isn’t what they seem.

Slayer
Director, Writer, Editor, Co-Producer: NYWIFT Member Eileen McQueen
2022, Comedy Horror, 17 min

After missing the bus, three beefing friends take a shortcut through the park, only to face another obstacle – this one of monstrous proportions.

Eileen McQueen is a writer/director living in Brooklyn, NY. A visual artist turned filmmaker, she explored the new medium with short films in close up character stories, including, Black Moon, White Rabbit; A Girl and a Gun; Vacation; and We Never Had the Antidote; and a pilot for a series Savoir Faire. SLAYER – a comedy monster short film, is a fun testament to persistence – shot 10 years ago, with a tiny budget, but then put on hold to find the right special effects for the creature. Brainstorming, accessible technology and creativity finally found way to bring it all to life this year, 2022, as envisioned. She is currently working to pitch two series projects and a first feature – the sci-fi film Tomorrow Never Knows.

Q&A moderated by:

Katie Chambers is a communications executive and event producer with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. She is currently the Senior Director of Community & Public Relations at NYWIFT. She received national recognition for her work at NYWIFT as one of Association Trends’ top “Young and Aspiring Executives” in 2021, and was recognized by New York Society of Association Executives with their “Rising Star” award in 2020. She serves on the board of one of New Jersey’s leading volunteer organizations, the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs (NJSFWC), and is a regular contributing writer for From Day One, a media outlet focused on innovations in corporate HR. Katie was previously a talent agent in the Youth & Young Adult Theatrical division at Abrams Artists Agency, and has worked for leading entertainment companies including Buchwald, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Scott Rudin Productions. She has served on the Next Generation Committee of the NY Television Festival, produced a critically acclaimed play at the NY Fringe Festival, and her writing has appeared in Huff Post and several printed essay collections. Katie graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Drew University with a double major in English and Theatre Arts.

Special thanks to NYWIFT Board Member Sibyl Reymundo-Santiago, the Executive Director and Head of Programming at SOHO International Film Festival.