ReFrame Rise: The 2019 Inaugural Class
ReFrame™, a collaborative initiative of WIF LA and Sundance Institute, announced the inaugural class of ReFrame Rise™ directors at the 2019 Women In Film Annual Gala on Wednesday, June 12 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.
ReFrame Rise is a comprehensive and customized 2-year sponsorship that provides endorsement and support to accelerate high-level sustainable careers for experienced female directors who are poised to lead studio and independent features, pilots, and episodic television across all platforms.
ReFrame Rise is a comprehensive and customized 2-year sponsorship that provides endorsement and support to accelerate high-level sustainable careers for experienced female directors who are poised to lead studio and independent features, pilots, and episodic television across all platforms.
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- Actress
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Desiree Akhavan was born on 27 December 1984 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a director and actress, known for Appropriate Behavior (2014), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) and The Bisexual (2018).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia and is regarded as one of the most significant cinematic figures in the Kingdom. She finished her bachelor's degree in Literature at the American University in Cairo and completed a Master's degree in Directing and Film Studies from the University of Sydney. The success of her three short films, as well as the international acclaim of her award-winning 2005 documentary Women Without Shadows, influenced a whole new wave of Saudi filmmakers and made the issue of opening cinemas in the Kingdom a front-page discussion. Within the Kingdom her work is both praised and vilified for encouraging discussion on topics generally considered too taboo, like tolerance, the dangers of orthodoxy, and the need for Saudis to take a critical look at their traditional and restrictive culture.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Patricia Cardoso is an award-winning director who has directed a wide range of films and episodes for the screen. Her first feature film, REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, was a box office and critical success and has become a landmark in US cinema. Cardoso's directing credits include episodes of THE SOCIETY, QUEEN SUGAR, WILL TRENT, THE WATCHFUL EYE, TALES OF THE CITY, the pilot for HARLAN COBEN'S SHELTER for Amazon Prime, and the feature EL PASEO DE TERESA -the largest box office for a woman director in Colombia. Cardoso is an anthropologist, an archaeologist, and a Fulbright scholar. Cardoso's anthropological approach to directing guides her film and television work. Cardoso was the first Latinx woman director to have a film included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry and to win a Student Academy Award® and a Sundance Audience Award. She is a graduate of UCLA's film school and was director of Sundance's Latin American program for five years. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Cardoso is a professor at UC Riverside and previously taught at USC and UCLA. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, The British Film Academy, the Television Academy, and the Directors Guild of America.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Selected for the inaugural class of 2019 ReFrame Rise directors, Hanelle M. Culpepper is an energetic and unflappable award-winning director whose television credits range from superhero action adventures to thrillers and genre films to character-driven dramas. In 2019, she was chosen to direct the pilot for Star Trek: Picard, making her the first woman to launch a new Star Trek series in its 53-year history, and earning her a Variety's 2019 Inclusion Impact honor. In 2021, Hanelle was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for her work on the show's pilot, 'Remembrance'.
Hanelle earned her B.A. from Lake Forest College and her M.A. from USC's Annenberg School. After working as the assistant for Oscar-winning screenwriter/director Callie Khouri, she was selected for AFI's prestigious Directing Workshop for Women (DWW), which launched her as an emerging director to watch. Her DWW short A Single Rose won numerous awards and screened at film festivals worldwide, including the 2004 ICG Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival.
A Single Rose plus Hanelle's viral short film spoof Six and the City, led to the greenlight for her first independent feature, the supernatural thriller Within, starring Mia Ford, Sammi Hanratty, Sam Jaeger, Lori Heuring, Brent Sexton, and featuring Aisha Hinds. The film won Outstanding Feature Film at the Big Bear Horror Film Festival and had its television premiere on Lifetime. Over the next several years, Hanelle helmed multiple independent thrillers, including Murder on the 13th Floor starring a young Tessa Thompson.
Hanelle's television career took off after participating in NBC Universal's Directing Initiative, which led to an episodic directing role for Parenthood. Since then, her television work includes such shows as Counterpart, Mayans M.C., Criminal Minds, Grimm, American Crime, The Flash, Gotham, and recently, the upcoming AMC series, NOS4A2. And in 2015, Hanelle earned her first nomination for an Image Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her work on Criminal Minds.
Hanelle proudly serves as Alternate Board member of the DGA and co-chair of the DGA's Women's Steering Committee. She is represented by Verve talent agency. Her manager is Adesuwa McCalla at Metamorphic Entertainment.
Hanelle proudly serves as Alternate Board member of the DGA and co-chair of the DGA's Women's Steering Committee. She is represented by Verve talent agency. Her manager is Adesuwa McCalla at Metamorphic Entertainment.- Director
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Sydney Freeland was born on 29 October 1980 in Gallup, New Mexico, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Drunktown's Finest (2014), Rez Ball and Echo (2023).- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Zetna Fuentes has established herself as one of the most in-demand directors, helming many of television's notable, award-winning shows. Most recently, Fuentes directed and executive produced episodes of the highly anticipated Hulu series, "Black Cake," based on the NY Times Bestseller. She also recently directed the pilot of "Bosch: Legacy" and served as an Executive Producer on the series. Her work has been showcased on numerous series including "The Old Man," "Ray Donovan," "The Girl From Plainville," "The Deuce," "The Great," "Shameless," and "This is Us." Fuentes has received multiple nominations for her work including NAACP and Imagen Award nominations for Outstanding Directing. Prior to her primetime success, Fuentes first earned recognition on the popular daytime dramas, "Guiding Light" and "One Life To Live," for which she was awarded three Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team. Born and raised in the Bronx, Fuentes began her directing career in New York theater working on many critically acclaimed Off-Broadway productions.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Tina Mabry graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Film Production in 2005. A true hyphenate, Tina is a writer, director, and producer for television and film. She is a writer and producer for Fox's upcoming series, Proven Innocent. She was a co-producer, writer, and director for the second season of USA's hit drama Queen of the South. Tina was also a producer, writer, and director on OWN's Queen Sugar created by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Tina produced and directed Melody 1963: Love Has To Win, an American Girl special for Amazon Kids. The special earned Tina a DGA Award and a NAACP Award. Tina's other television directing credits include Netflix's Dear White People, ABC's The Mayor, HBO's Insecure, FX's Pose, and STARZ's Power.
In film, Tina began her career co-writing the feature screenplay Itty Bitty Titty Committee directed by Jamie Babbit. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007 and won Best Feature Narrative at South by Southwest Film and Music Festival. Tina went on to write and direct her first feature film, Mississippi Damned, which garnered an impressive thirteen awards for participation in fifteen film festivals including awards for Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2009. The film premiered on Showtime Networks in February 2011. Tina has worked on a number of short films, including her first film, the award-winning Brooklyn's Bridge to Jordan, which screened at more than fifty film festivals worldwide and aired on Showtime Networks, LOGO and Centric. Tina is the writer for Madison Wells Media's Code of Silence.
Tina was named among the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in Filmmaker Magazine in July of 2009 and was recognized by Out Magazine as one of the most inspirational and outstanding people of the year. She was featured in the Advocate magazine as part of their "Top Forty Under 40" issue, which features the top 40 individuals who are raising the bar in their respective fields. Tina has participated in several talent development programs including Film Independent's Writers' Lab, Tribeca Film Institute's All Access, and Sundance's Screenwriters Intensive.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Meera Menon is an Indian-American director, writer, and editor. Her feature directorial debut, Farah Goes Bang, screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and was awarded the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize by Tribeca and Vogue. She resides in Los Angeles.
Menon cited her father as her earliest inspiration for filmmaking, using his camera to shoot films with her next-door neighbor. Since her father, Vijayan Menon, is a film producer, Menon was exposed to filmmaking from a young age. Her father is also a founder of Tara Arts, an English cultural ambassador for South India, showcasing musicals and films. Menon says while her parents encouraged her to pursue the arts, her father advised her to look at it as a hobby.
Because of this way of thinking about film, Menon did not seriously consider filmmaking as a career until she attended Columbia University, and took classes that were taught by professional filmmakers. Menon she received a BA in English and Art History from Columbia, but while she was there, she began directing films and discovered a passion for the craft. She went on to receive an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
In 2009, Menon wrote and directed the short film Mark in Argentina, a story about a governor searching for his mistress in Argentina. However, it wasn't until Menon released her feature-length debut when she started to get a great deal of recognition from the media.
Menon's first full-length feature film, Farah Goes Bangwas described by Jennifer Mills as one that, "explores many genres: the road movie, the sexual coming of age movie, the political film, the buddy movie." Menon co-wrote the film with Laura Goode, who also acted as a producer. Not only did Menon win the Nora Ephron Prize for Farah Goes Bang, but the film also won awards at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and CAAMFest.
Menon also works as an editor for Larry King Now, and has done camera work and art direction for other independent projects.
In 2015, Menon directed the female-driven Wall Street drama Equity. The film premiered In Competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2016 Menon also wrote and directed the short film The Press Conference for Refinery29's ShatterBox Anthology, a series of 12 shorts written and directed by women. The short premiered on Refinery29's website on September 23, 2016.
She had also worked as a director on the TV series The Magicians for an episode in the third, and two in the fourth season.