Kid Sis in Hollywood

Bzzzline.com interviews Drew Daywalt and Marichelle Daywalt at BleedFest

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:05:00 +0000

Bzzzline.com comes through for BleedFest Film Festival Group filmmakers yet again with this wonderful article on BleedFest Award Winners Drew Daywalt (April 2011 Partnership Award)and Marichelle Daywalt (MOCKINGBIRD, THE MANY DOORS OF ALBERT WHALE).

Great interviews with the unstoppable husband/wife team on our red carpet, and it's all just in time to celebrate Drew's amazing directorial debut on MTV comedy-horror series sensation DEATH VALLEY!

Thanks so much Alisha Rayne and Bzzzline Team! We love you and all you do for our Bleeders! Congrats Daywalts!

Tivo Alert!

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:03:00 +0000

In case you didn't know, my sister Brenda Fies and I run a monthly Los Angeles film festival called BleedFest that proves that there are hundreds of women making cool, badass genre films that you don't want to miss!

BleedFest Film Festival Partnership alum Drew Daywalt's first episode of DEATH VALLEY airs tonight on MTV at 10:30pm (and an episode written by our friend David Weinstein is coming very soon.)

VIP guest and wonderful supporter Kevin Tenney's feature A FRIENDSHIP TO DIE FOR (retitled from the original TICK TOCK) airs on LMN (Lifetime Movie Network) Tuesday at 7pm and 11 pm, so no excuses! Check it out!

In six degrees of separation, it happens to star talented Megan Ward, the co-star of our March feature winner WAKING DREAMS by the wonderful Deepika Daggubati!

WORLD PREMIER at BleedfFest! Do you like...dragons????

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:38:00 +0000

Who says women don't make cool movies?

The Fies Sisters are thrilled to bring you the World Premier of the fantasy-adventure feature DAWN OF THE DRAGONSLAYER at our female genre festival BleedFest! Be there- the director Ann Black and many of her team will be!

Sunday September 25th! 1-5pm; full schedule lineup of awesome genre shorts by women coming very sooon!

Scrutinize - a new Fies Sisters short covered by Chuck Norris Ate My Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:15:00 +0000

With one of the most badass titles on the web, Matt at Chuck Norris Ate My Baby is a writer we have long admired for his terrific coverage and analysis of all things genre. Matt writes with eloquence and humor about the old and the new, the big and the indie, and is always entertaining. Check out this gem he unearthed: How VCRs Destroyed America's Youth

The Fies Sisters are honored to have our first YouTube release SCRUTINIZE covered by the man, the legend, the Chuck-tamer himself. Who wouldn't feel thrilled to hear this about their work:

"But what I think I dig the most about Scrutinize is the idea itself and how it's executed. It grabs your attention and keeps you wondering where it might go, only to have a genuinely smart and very fun reveal in the end."

Check out the awesome article here! Become a member of Matt's blog. The Fies Sisters highly recommend it because Chucktober is coming!

A Must-Read by a Female TV Writer

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Amazing, important post about the realities of sexism in Hollywood by a woman who lived it firsthand while making history.

Fancy a serenade by Joseph Gordon-Levitt? En Francais?

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:41:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Gap479VrT0#!

Dire stats show terrible truth behind women on/making TV

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:45:00 +0000

I'm constantly trying to convince women outside of Hollywood or looking to break into Hollywood how difficult it is and how the numbers are going backwards. Here's proof: "Women Lose Ground as TV Writers"

Seriously, don't move to L.A. Stay where you are and make media there. If you're in a different country, odds are fantastic you'll get government funding. And even if you live in what you think is a backwards town in the U.S., I promise you it's less sexist and sleazy than Hollywood. You don't need Hollywood anymore to make and distribute your voice. Don't believe the B.S. tinseltown dream of getting famous or making riches...barely anyone here even makes a living. If you're in it for the right reason of expressing yourself, nothing can stop you...IF you stay where you a re and stop asking Hollywood for acceptance and permission.

Do you set wildly improbably goals?

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:35:00 +0000

My sister Brenda and I do, and it really pushes you to create miracles. Check out this article over at O.

Vampire of the Week #4: The Serbian Vampire Pumpkin (Alex Van Helsing)

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:20:00 +0000

Nature Chick: Humans are still decent

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:02:00 +0000

Nature Chick: Humans are still decent: "I saw a news reel on Yahoo News this morning about a homeless man who returned $3,300 and a lost backpack from a light rail car in Tempe, Ar..."

Another douchey contest to rip off screenwriters

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:30:00 +0000

I didn't say it. Reading between the lines of Script Mag's review of the new Amazon Studios contest. I would NOT submit my material to it.

Mel's Hollywood Feminist of the Day is Ryan Gosling!

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:19:00 +0000

An excellent media quote from actor Ryan Gosling defending women in Melissa Silverstein's brilliant WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD blog. Thank you for being our hero, Ryan!!!

New review of The Commune from Horrorphilia

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:18:00 +0000

We'll be doing a podcast with them soon, too!

Review link.

Black Swan

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:14:00 +0000

I absolutely adored this movie. I felt enthralled, even breathless in some scenes.

Director Darren Aronofsky brilliantly blends several genres to keep the audience as on their toes as the athletes we are observing. The surprise of not knowing which genre will be drawn from next, as well as the wonderful details of everyday ballet life add up to an unbearable tension. It is a huge achievement that in cinematic world where audiences are conditioned to see bigger and bigger torture scenes, Aronofsky can make an entire theatre audibly gasp and hide their eyes at real-life dancer wounds like a split toenail and a long hangnail.

Why these scares work is because of the wonderful sound design, creative and flawless CGI, and expert stalking camera work that thrusts us into the lead character's pointe shoes. Aronofsky forces empathy with techniques I haven't seen since Silence of the Lambs made us see through Clarice's eyes. The scene on the subway where the dirty old man comes on to Portman's character is reason enough for every man who wants to understand a woman to see this film.

Portman gives the best performance of her career, and lives up to the promise we all saw in LEON. Her baggage of growing up onscreen to be a competent, passionless performer is integrated seamlessly into this role and the theme of the movie: the masochism of being a female performer in a misogyinistic world.

The result is a sublime, frightening fairy tale that accurately captures the dog eat dog ballet world, what it's like to be a modern female artist constrained within misogynistic institutions like the acting and ballet world, and the transcendent freedom that artists feel only onstage as they lose themselves in the shamanism of channeling The Role of Their Lifetime.

Why we pay to watch them jump into the abyss for our voyeuristic pleasure is a whole other movie.

Give it a chance, go along for the ride, and AVOID THE TRAILER.

A great horror night in San Diego!

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:17:00 +0000

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

Catherine Hardwicke's next genre film

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:04:00 +0000

Little Red Riding Hood. March 2011. Looks like another genre bender with a potentially empowering female lead. Fingers crossed.

Night of the Hell Hamsters

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:38:00 +0000

Another brilliant short you can watch free online. Funny, but definitely horror from a gifted filmmaker.

You're a pretty good short filmmaker...

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:39:00 +0000

...when you can generate suspense using teddy bears as your thespians. Kudos to DAY OF THE TED. Yes, it's free online! And quite funny.

Watch Terry Gilliam's latest

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:25:00 +0000

Even the masters are moving to online shorts sponsored by corporations. The wave of the future.

I feel both pain at the corporate tag, and pleasure that another filmmaker is getting paid to work in these perilous times. Get used to it.

The Legend of Hallowdega
by Terry Gilliam
An Amp Energy Juice Film

Our last LA screening of THE COMMUNE!

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:08:00 +0000

*****We've NEVER DONE THIS!!!!

Buy a ticket to our last LA screening and get a FREEEEE autographed DVD of THE COMMUNE!

They're signed by me and wrapped in plastic...one less holiday gift for you to buy!

The Valley Film Festival
THIS FRIDAY, November 12th
7:30 pm

The Commune- Promo for The Valley Film Festival from The Commune Movie on Vimeo.

Massively thrilled to be planning for Women in Horror Month!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Because February is right around the corner, it's time for female genre filmmakers and the men who love them to go from a whisper to a scream. WE EXIST!!!!

October Herror Fest: Directress #11

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 04:47:00 +0000

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:

Hope Perello

Hope began her brief career as a producer of 80s horror films CATACOMBS and PUPPETMASTER: THE LEGACY and as the assistant director on NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: PART 4. In 1991 she directed the straight to DVD sequel HOWLING 6, and infused it with gothic style and a feminist sensibility. Good luck finding any info on Hope on the web...and it's almost as tough to find her horror movie HOWLING 6, which by many accounts is the best sequel in the series.

Though she appears to have disappeared more thoroughly than any other invisible directress featured in Herror Fest, I can attest Hope did once exist: I auditioned for her in the 90s.

Wikipedia entry
Joe Bob Brigg's review of HOWLING 6

Rental Suggestions: Howling 6

October Herror Fest: Directress #10

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 04:13:00 +0000

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:

Doris Wishman

Exploitation director/producer/writer/actress Doris Wishman had a prolific career from the 60s to the 80s directing thirty feature films, often under male aliases. Her career began in nudies with titles like KEYHOLES ARE FOR PEEPING, and ended with the horror film A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER in 1983 after much of the movie's footage had been destroyed. Her Ed Woodian style included non-synch dialogue, crazy jazz music, and odd-looking bad actors.

Whether or not her work was feminist, there's no doubt Doris's occupation as a B Movie directress was. She managed to create some offbeat, creative genre work from a woman's point of view (penis transplant, anyone?). At ninety years old she staged a comeback with the comedy DILDO HEAVEN, released the year of her death.

"After I die I will be making movies in hell!" - Doris Wishman

Rental Suggestions: A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER
Article: Interesting Motherfuckers

October Herror Fest: Directress #9

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 03:46:00 +0000

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:

Maya Deren

No one has had a more profound effect on filmmaking and filmmakers with a smaller body of work than this Mother of the Avant Garde. Sometimes credited with revolutionizing Mise en Scene, at the least everyone agrees that the legendary rabble rousing intellectual/artist/actress/theorist/voodoo priestess is still worthy of dissection and study in film school for her crucial work on Symbolist film poetry, self expression and her invention of "Creative Geography".

Professional deconstructionist guru Robert McKee has the most right-on evaluation I've ever read of the meaning of MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. In his famous GENRE MASTERPIECE class, he breaks it down shot by shot to prove his thesis that Maya Deren was expressing every woman's fear that a female artist who marries will los her identity and bring death to her creativity...Ironically, she shot the film with her first husband Alexander Hammid in 1943 and didn't officially finish it until a decade later with her third husband (a much younger composer named Teiji Ito who added the striking and haunting score).

MESHES is a gorgeously lyrical and primal fear-stoking short film that bats away the male gaze, and has influenced everyone from Jaques Torneau to David Lynch to, well...me. Watching MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON in film school at 18 was life-changing. When we went to shoot Jenny's nightmare sequences in THE COMMUNE I pulled stills from MESHES.

Further suggestions:
Read: ESSENTIAL DEREN: COLLECTED WRITINGS ON FILM
Maya Deren, Pioneer of the American Avant Garde Movement
Watch: AT LAND Shot in 1944, AL is another dream-like classic about the fight to keep one's personal identity. Unmissable for the crazy-ass goggles and big foot scene. Just watch it.
Rent: DIVINE HORSEMEN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI
Documentary IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN

And if you live in NYC you JUST missed the sixth month MOMA exhibit on Deren. Argh!

October Herror Fest: Directress #8

noreply@blogger.com (Kid Sis) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:40:00 +0000

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.