AFS Announces the 2019 Artist Intensive Participants and Mentors
(2019 Artist Intensive participants, left to right: Channing Godfrey Peoples, Morrisa Maltz, Maria Lorena Padilla, and Ryan Darbonne)
MEDIA CONTACT
Brady Dyer, Communications Manager
brady@austinfilm.org
October 11, 2019
Austin Film Society Announces the 2019 Artist Intensive
Participants and Mentors
Austin, TX—The Austin Film Society announces the participants and mentors for its annual Artist Intensive (October 16 – 20), a weekend of work, focus, and mentorship for emerging narrative feature filmmakers poised for career leaps. The weekend, which includes screenplay readings, works-in-progress screenings, and rehearsals with guest actors, has been instrumental in providing artists with creative feedback, resources, and momentum for their projects. Past project alumni include Annie Silverstein’s BULL (Deauville winner and Cannes Un Certain Regard competition), Augustine Frizzell’s NEVER GOIN’ BACK (Sundance, Independent Spirit Award-nominated) and Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund’s BARRACUDA (SXSW). Past mentors have included Jonathan Demme, Catherine Hardwicke, Charles Burnett, Athina Rachel Tsangari, So Yong Kim and James Ponsoldt, among others
This year’s selected Artist Intensive Fellows include:
Maria Lorena Padilla – MARTINEZ (development)
Ryan Darbonne and Carina Hinojosa – WE REAL COOL (development)
Morrisa Maltz – THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (post-production)
Channing Godfrey Peoples – MISS JUNETEENTH (post-production)
Creative advisors and producing mentors who will work with the filmmakers throughout the weekend this year include: AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater; acclaimed filmmakers Michael Almereyda (HAMLET, EXPERIMENTER, MARJORIE PRIME) and Jeremy Saulnier (BLUE RUIN, GREEN ROOM, HOLD THE DARK); producers Caroline Kaplan (SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, BOYHOOD, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW), and Toby Halbrooks (THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN, A GHOST STORY, writer, PETE’S DRAGON); and film editor Sandra Adair (BEFORE MIDNIGHT, BOYHOOD, THE SECRET LIFE OF LANCE LETSCHER)
The Artist Intensive is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and sponsored by Tito’s Handmade Vodka. The Artist Intensive is catered by Sonya Coté, owner and executive chef of Eden East.
More about the 2019 selected projects and filmmakers:
Headshots available here
MARTINEZ
Directed by Maria Lorena Padilla
Martinez, a cranky and lonely bureaucrat resisting retirement, receives a surprise gift from a deceased neighbor. He finally begins to enjoy life through a love affair with her through her old belongings. Maria Lorena Padilla has a BA in Audiovisual Arts from the University of Guadalajara and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of the Arts/NYU, where she attended as a Fulbright scholar. Her feature film script MARTINEZ participated at the Script Station/Berlinale Talents, Script & Pitch/Torino Film Lab and Cine Qua Non Lab. The script has been supported by Tribeca Film Institute and by the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) earning the Scriptwriters and Development Grants and Fund Quality Film Production (FOPROCINE).
WE REAL COOL
Directed by Ryan Darbonne
Written by Carina Hinojosa and Ryan Darbonne
Told over the course of one day, Austin’s first POC punk festival provides the backdrop for three intersecting stories featuring a failed musician searching for his lost van, two strangers on an awkward road trip, and a Mexican punk band on the verge of a complete breakdown. Ryan Darbonne is an Austin-based filmmaker with over a decade’s worth of experience in production. He has written and directed a number of projects that have been featured on Noisey, Ovrld and other online publications. He co-founded the community arts organization Cinema 41 in 2011 (Austin Chronicle ‘Best Of’ 2012) and served as the Film Department Director at Austin Film Festival in 2013. His award-winning short film, I AM TEXAS, is currently on its festival run.
THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY
Directed by Morrisa Maltz
An unexpected invitation from her estranged Lakota family sends a young woman on a winding road trip through the Midwest all the way down to the Texas-Mexico border. A doc-drama observational film that takes a look at one less-traveled part of America, the people who live there and the complexity of a Native woman traveling alone in the current cultural climate. Morrisa Maltz is a Dallas-based artist and filmmaker. She holds a BA from Columbia University where she majored in fine art. Her art, film, and performance work have been shown at MOCA, Los Angeles, as well as at the MCA, Santa Barbara and galleries internationally. Morrisa’s first feature documentary, INGRID, premiered at Slamdance 2018 and has gone on to be screened at numerous top festivals including Atlanta Film Festival, Oak Cliff, RIIF and BendFilm Festival.
MISS JUNETEENTH
Directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples
Centered around the Juneteenth holiday (commemorating the day slaves in Texas were freed – two long years after everybody else), Miss Juneteenth tells the story of Turquoise, a former beauty queen turned hard working single mother, as she prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating her same mistakes. Winner of the the Warbach Lighting and Design New Texas Voices Grant, a $10,000 cash grant for a filmmaker identifying with a community of color who is making his or her first feature length film. Channing Godfrey Peoples is a 2018 Filmmaker Magazine “25 New Faces of Independent Film” recipient. Recently, she wrote and directed a short film for the Refinery29 Shatterbox Season 3 Short Film Series and she wrote two episodes on Season 3 of QUEEN SUGAR (OWN Network). Her feature film debut now in post-production, MISS JUNETEENTH, participated in the Sundance Writer Intensive and Sundance Creative Producing Lab and has been recognized by the Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship and American Zoetrope.
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, special events, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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