Fusion Film Festival

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Erika Houle: From Here To There

(Header Image a Still of Gloria Steinem in “Equal Means Equal”)

By Priya Khanolkar, Fusion Alumni Relations.

Erika Houle (Grad Film/TSOA, 2011) works not only in the field but also in the classroom. In college, Erika had many different internships with world-renowned directors such as Terrence Malick, and after graduating she was able to work on many projects. She recently completed her master’s degree in Art, Education, & Community Practice while teaching Camera I at Tisch. Erika knew she always had a passion for teaching as well as an interest in film, so being a part of the 2016 Fusion Film Festival as a faculty judge was perfect. Erika recently answered a few questions, highlighting how she got from here to there.

When Erika first began her undergraduate years at the Tisch School of the Arts, she believed that she wanted to be a music video director. However, her passion quickly pivoted to documentary filmmaking. Documentaries allow Erika to grow close to people all over the world and learn from them. During her time at Tisch, Erika interned on Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, where she had the opportunity to work on  a professional set for the first time. She noted how everyone on set treated each other with respect but also prepared her for enduring the emotional turmoil and logistical chaos of many low budget shoots. Erika also interned at Partizan, a world renowned production company, which was perfect for her due to her interest in Michel Gondry. She learned most of her skills from working on many student film sets. By the time she graduated, she had made contacts with many people because she had worked on their student sets when she was an underclassman. This is how she found many of her jobs post graduation.

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Still from Erika Houle’s Undergraduate Thesis Film “Last Texas Cowboy”

One of those jobs was as a DP for a documentary starring social political activist and feminist organizer Gloria Steinem. The documentary’s director, Kamala Lopez, was looking for a NYC-based DP to shoot the interview. Erika was put in contact with Kamala through a mutual friend whom Erika had met while working on student film sets at NYU. Erika commented that Gloria Steinem is a wealth of wisdom and experience, and one comment from Gloria that stuck with her was that, “Upon reflection it was naive of her [Gloria Steinem] to believe that simply presenting facts to people would change minds. As a budding activist, that bit of wisdom saved me years of learning the hard way.”

Erika did make a note that as a freelance filmmaker, you face many hard decisions. To do the interview with Gloria Steinem, she had to turn down a well paying commercial, but she is glad that she did. Erika said that, “Sometimes the projects we work on affect more than our IMDb page. They touch our souls.”

Erika is now a member of Local 600 and is currently working on segments for Saturday Night Live and a documentary titled “Equal Means Equal”, all while teaching Camera I: Practices & Principles of Cinematography. When she is not working on her multiple projects, Erika is watching Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes in between the new season of BBC’s Sherlock. When asked, “If you could go back in time and give your college self any advice, what would it be?”, she replied, “I would ask myself the question I now ask my students: ‘What is your burning question?’” Erika wants students to not be caught up in worrying about a career before they have graduated and take the time in college to experiment and find their voices. “Figuring out your essential question, which can change over time, and answering it helps you find your purpose in your work.”

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ALUMNI FEATURE: Interview – Elizabeth Bohinc & Kate Zabinsky

By Piera Van de Wiel and Kara Lawson, Fusion Alumni Relations.

September, 29th 2015: We spoke with Elizabeth Bohinc and Kate Zabinsky, Fusion Film Festival alumnae who recently put together a panel in LA for industry professionals to talk about women in the film and television industries.The panel was two years in the making.

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What was your process in creating the panel?

Having been co-directors of the Fusion Film Festival during our time at NYU, we have a history and particular connection with these themes. After graduation we both moved to Los Angeles and began our careers. We continue to be involved with NYU alumni events as well as with other industry professional organizations. Through our experiences, we noticed that there was a dearth of high-level conversations about women working in this industry. There was the standard fare about balancing work and family life or breaking in. There weren’t examples or conversations about mentorship or how to grow your careers once you are in the door (if they manage to get themselves into the room in the first place). We are women in entertainment. Ultimately, we wanted to hear the opinions and advice of people who have careers we’d like to emulate. We thought back on our experiences at Fusion and realized, with the help of NYU, we had the power to put all these people in a room to foster this conversation. So that’s what we did.

Who was involved?

The two of us [Elizabeth Bohinc TSOA ’10 and Kate Zabinsky TSOA ’11], Joanna Puglisi from Tisch Alumni Relations, and Lauren Nisenson from Gallatin Alumni Relations. We had actually previously worked with Lauren on Fusion in 2010 for our first ever alumni panel. Drew Uriarte, Assistant Dean of Tisch, helped get it off the ground. Thania St. John (Gallatin parent) moderated the panel. Thania is a TV Writer/Showrunner, WGA Board Member, and the Co-Founder of the League of Hollywood Women Writers.

The panelists included: Rachel Brosnahan, Maryam Keshavarz, Toni Graphia, and Campbell Smith.

Rachel Brosnahan graduated from Tisch with a BFA in Drama in 2012. After several guest TV and theater roles, she broke out with a guest role in House of Cards, eventually leading to an Emmy Nomination for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series for “Rachel.” She is also a series regular in WGN’s Manhattan. In addition to her acting work, she works as an Ambassador for Global Citizen.

Maryam Keshavarz is a producer, writer, and director. After graduating from NYU’s TSOA MFA program with a major in Film & TV, she shot her independent feature Circumstance, which explores homosexuality in modern Iran. Circumstance went on to win several festival awards including the 2011 Audience Award. Maryam teamed up with Academy Award nominated producers Anna Gerb, Neal Dodson, and JC Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All is Lost, and Margin Call) and will be directing her sophomore feature, The Untitled Oliver Diaz Story, in February 2016.

Toni Graphia is a television writer and producer, currently serving as Executive Producer on Starz’s hit fantasy drama Outlander. She has been working television for over twenty years, starting as a researcher on China Beach and working her way up the writing ladder on shows such as Roswell, Grey’s Anatomy, and Battlestar Galactica. In 2005, she won a Peabody Award as part of the writing staff for Battlestar.

Campbell Smith is the Head of Television for Carousel Productions. After graduation, she moved to New York, eventually landing at The Daily Show for six years where she met Steve and Nancy Carell (both correspondents at the time).  After writing and producing a number of shows, she teamed back up with the Carells to form Carousel Television. Campbell Smith serve as an EP on TBS’s upcoming comedy series Angie Tribeca.

How did the event go? And how was it received?

The event went incredibly well. The panelists were so dynamic; we could have let them go for hours! We were able to convince UTA (United Talent Agency) to donate their theater for the event. They were very impressed with the event and offered their space to make it an annual event. We plan to do just that.

The audience responded very well. The questions during the Q&A as well as the conversation that continued during the reception were high level, intelligent, and productive.

How has Fusion impacted your careers, and what lessons did you carry over into the business?

Kate: First, actually working for Fusion, organizing logistics and personnel, taught me as much about how to work in the industry as my film classes did. Learning how to collaborate, problem solve, and meet deadlines is just as important as creative instinct once you enter the professional world. As far as thinking about women in the industry, I think Fusion helped me learn to verbalize my questions and concerns. That is to say, I am a woman and I work in film, so it would never have been something I didn’t know about or didn’t think about. But, because I had the experience of Fusion, I am able to look at the challenges that exist and approach them in more productive ways because it’s a conversation I’ve been having since I was a freshman at Tisch.

Elizabeth: I can’t agree more with Kate about Fusion preparing me for the professional world, but I also will say it helped me develop a shorthand with a group of professionals I truly trust to this day. Kate and I obviously work very well together because of our Fusion experience. [It’s the] same with Lauren Nisenson and I. We just know how to collaborate, problem solve, and get it done. Fusion also made me more aware of female industry professionals, which always helped when a development team had to make a list of episodic female directors or writers to staff a show. It’s good to just have a list of diverse, interesting voices in the back of your head at all times. I learned that from Fusion.

Once Upon a Time: The Progression of Women in Fairytales

By Rachel Lambert, Editorial Staff Writer.

Female characters in fairytales, while set in environments of fiction and fantasy, have begun to express truer-to-life traits. They are expanding beyond a reliance on princes on handsome steeds and breaking gender stereotypes. Once Upon a Time, an ABC television series created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, joins many characters, some new and some from well known fairytales and Disney films, in a creative plot set predominantly in Storybrooke, a fictional town in Maine. The storyline is intriguing, from its plot twists to its cleverly intermingled character relationships, and it provides a very empowering view of women through its multiple strong, female characters.

The main character is Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), a woman who discovers that she is the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), and that she is the “savior” who can break the curse over Storybrooke. Emma exhibits remarkable fortitude, intelligence, and independence, and despite the obstacles that stand before her, continues to persevere and protect the town and her family. She is not perfect; for instance, she made mistakes when she was younger when trying to cope with being an orphan, but this again reveals the fine line between fantasy and reality. Magic comes with a price, and so do our decisions. The characters, like us, are multi-faceted and subject to the challenging situations life propels at them. Their perseverance through these situations, willingness to learn from their mistakes, and readiness to be the rescuers rather than the rescued is what makes them so motivational and relatable.

The show’s central antagonist, as much as the protagonist, breaks stereotypes as well. We are all familiar with the “evil stepmother” concept, but Once Upon A Time’s Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla), the queen who released the curse over Storybrooke, reveals that villains too are complex. They become evil not by an inherent desire to cause suffering, or by a devotion to vanity (as it is commonly portrayed), but by struggling to cope with their personal tragedies. Regina actually saved Snow White’s life when she was a child; however, Snow’s failure to keep a secret about Regina’s lover, a divulgence that led to his murder, was part of what sparked Regina’s villainy. In the series, Snow White and the Evil Queen are more than symbols of either virtue or vanity; instead, they are both human.

The same is true for other characters. Belle (Emilie de Ravin) exercises empathy and curiosity but sometimes lacks self-confidence. Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory), who transforms into the Wolf, is tough but must also battle her inner beast, and her granny (Beverley Elliott), sharp-tongued and crossbow-bearing, is far from defenseless. The series has featured many other women as well, from Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) to the Wicked Witch of the West (Rebecca Mader), Tinker Bell (Rose McIver), Elsa (Georgina Haig) and Anna (Elizabeth Lail) of Arendelle, and more. Each woman has a goal that defines them and a past that built their identities. Some make more admirable decisions than others, but they all show that women are far from delicate damsels.

The characters in Once Upon a Time are independent, but that does not mean they reject love. Yes, the idea of “love at first sight” is challenged, but the characters still have lovers, families, and friends that they fight to protect. The relationships between characters grow over time, as love often does in the real world, evidencing a shift towards a more authentic perspective on romance. The performances by the many brilliant actresses in the cast are fantastic. Viewers empathize with the characters, want to see them find their happily ever afters, and join in every episode’s adventure.

Once Upon a Time fuses imagination with reality. Physical magic exists in the show, but it symbolizes and makes visual the magic we all possess. Some of the characters are afraid of their powers in a way that is similar to how many of us suppress what makes us unique, but they move past this fear. It is inspiring to see characters like Emma Swan, savior, mother, and sheriff, who reveals how tough, inventive, and brave women are. Women can sword fight, care for children, battle dragons, and save towns. They can be nurturers and protectors, fighters and peacekeepers. All stereotypes can be shattered, and everyone can be a hero.

Favorites of the Year

By Ben Eisen, Editorial Staff Head

Favorite Female-Directed Show: Olive Kitteridge

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“It baffles me, this world. I don’t want to leave it yet.” So closes HBO’s incredible four-hour miniseries that proved more vital, moving, and human than anything else I saw this year. The cast is pitch perfect, the direction empathic in its pacing, and the writing reminiscent of such greats as Mrs. Dalloway and John Williams’ Stoner. Hats off to Frances McDormand and Lisa Chodolenko for powering something so special.

Honorable Mentions: Jenji Kohan’s immensely entertaining and humanistic second season of Orange is the New Black; the gleefully absurd Broad City; Jill Soloway’s brutally honest family portrait in Transparent.

Favorite Female Performance: Elisabeth Moss, Listen Up Philip

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By turns heartbreaking and strong-willed as the titular narcissist’s ex, Ashley Kane, Moss leaves no doubt she’ll keep rocking it post-Mad Men. Although Jason Schartzman kills it in the role he was born to play, Moss commands the screen with an even more memorable and dynamic turn, charting the emotionally taxing aftermath of a breakup. Watching her struggle to smile through tears after Philip comes and goes at will is a master class in acting.

Honorable Mentions: Frances McDormand’s bracingly funny and real Olive Kitteridge; Amy Landecker’s stressed out parent in Louie’s achingly melancholy “In The Woods”; Gaby Hoffmann’s rootless Pfefferman daughter in Transparent (think a more endearing and empathic Hannah Horvath).

Favorite Female-Directed Movie: The Babadook

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Horror and emotional honesty don’t usually go hand in hand, but director Jennifer Kent subverts convention in her deeply felt debut film. From Essie’s Davis potent performance as a conflicted mother to the consummate and tense cinematography, everything about the movie feels assured and controlled at a level most filmmakers never reach. Here’s to a long career for Kent.

Honorable Mentions: I haven’t been to the theater enough this year, so still need to see my sister’s favorite, Obvious Child, the promising and unfortunately topical Selma, and the Jarmuschian A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.

Finally, the Emergence of Female Superheroes

Kevin Park, Editorial Staff Writer

Since both Disney/Marvel and Warner Brothers revealed their massive slate of superhero films that will last them until 2019, the demand for a female-driven superhero movie has only gotten louder. Currently Warner Bros. is planning to introduce Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) in 2016’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which will be followed up by a standalone film now rumored to be directed by Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead). In response, Marvel is planning to release Captain Marvel in 2018, a movie that will focus on the titular character Carol Danvers. There are also talks of creating a Black Widow spinoff film and a female centric Spiderman spinoff project from Sony as well.

I think that with these recent developments, there is a great opportunity here for more female directors to break into Hollywood, especially those coming from an indie background. They have the potential to add a fresh perspective to a genre already showing signs of fatigue and wear. Much like how Jennifer Lee’s Frozen was lauded for bringing stronger female centered themes to the classic Disney Princess movies, I believe that the right director can achieve similar results in the upcoming films from Marvel, DC, and Sony. Here is my wish list of women I would like to see behind the camera for a superhero movie:

– Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) – Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil) is currently slated to direct Marvel’s Doctor Strange, but Jenifer Kent is in my opinion a more promising choice. Her first feature, The Babadook, has received critical acclaim and was praised for balancing genuine horror with a strong thoughtful story. 

– Patty Jenkins (Monster) – More involved in television than film now, her direction for The Killing earned her positive reviews. At one point in talks to direct Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, her gritty sensibilities make her more appropriate to the world of DC.

– Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights) – Known for her intimate kitchen sink dramas such as Fish Tank, Arnold has an uncompromising style that would be very interesting to see in a superhero movie, where playing it safe seems to be the unquestioned rule of the game.

– Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) – This would be glorious. Bigelow knows how to ratchet up tension better than almost everyone in Hollywood. In my opinion, she is a far more interesting choice to direct DC’s The Suicide Squad than current choice David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury).

– Brenda Chapman (Brave) – Chapman can pull a Brad Bird here, who went from Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille to the live action Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Chapman has a powerfully developed visual sense that aided her work in The Prince of Egypt and Brave, so it seems natural to think that her vision can do wonders for the superhero world.