Lauren Wolkstein

Lauren Wolkstein is an American film director, writer, and editor. She is known for directing the 2017 drama-thriller The Strange Ones with Christopher Radcliff and serving on the directorial team for the third season of Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar,[2] which she followed with a producing director role in the fifth season.[3] A 2017-2018 Women at Sundance fellow,[4] Wolkstein has been named a "New Face of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine.[5] Her films have screened at several festivals, including Cannes Film Festival,[6] Outfest LGBT Film Festival,[7] Sundance Film Festival,[8] and SXSW.[9]

Lauren Wolkstein
Born1982 (age 38–39)[1]
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
EducationDuke University (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
OccupationDirector, writer, editor
WebsiteOfficial website

She is a tenured Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia.[10]

Early life and education

Wolkstein was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. The daughter of a schoolteacher and an Air Force Colonel,[11] she grew up a short drive away from the amusement park where fellow Baltimorean John Waters staged part of his 1990 film, Cry-Baby. At 16, Wolkstein worked in coding for a Department of Defense agency where she was "the only female coder and the only teenager in the room." She was provided a security clearance that exceeded her war veteran father's. With David Lynch, Lukas Moodysson, and Waters serving as early inspirations,[12] Wolkstein obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Film from Duke University in 2004, where she also won the school's Undergraduate Filmmaker Award. In 2010, she obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing from Columbia University.[13] While at Columbia, she say that she "fell in love with filmmakers like Hal Ashby and Nicholas Ray, who had a sensitivity to outsiders, odd couple pairings, and people on the fringes.”[14]

Career

Wolkstein's School of the Arts thesis film, Cigarette Candy, won the Short Film Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival.[15] Cigarette Candy was praised as "a strikingly honest portrayal of one teenage Marine's homecoming" by Short of the Week.[16]

In 2017, Wolkstein and Radcliff adapted their intergenerational road trip short The Strange Ones into a feature-length film. The thriller gleaned mixed reviews, with Eric Kohn at IndieWire calling it “a bracing, unpredictable movie, building its disquieting suspense around unknown relationships and invisible threats”[17] and Matt Zoeller Seitz at RogerEbert.com noting that The Strange Ones is "assembled like a jigsaw puzzle that one can 'solve,' immediately or gradually, but the characters are characters, human beings, and they suffer a bit from being treated as puzzles as well."[18] In Artforum, John Waters named The Strange Ones one of his favorite movies of 2017.[19]

In 2018, Wolkstein began her involvement with Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar, joining the directing team in Season 3,[20] and becoming a directing producer two years later for Season 5,[21] in which she directed 5 episodes.[22] Wolkstein has also directed episodes of Cloak & Dagger[23] and Dare Me.[24]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Director Writer Producer Editor Notes Ref(s)
2005 Coney Island Catch Yes Yes Yes Yes Short film Coney Island Catch (2005)
2007 Dandelion Fall Yes Yes No No Short film Dandelion Fall (2007)
2007 Love Crimes Yes Yes Yes Yes Short film Love Crimes (2007)
2009 Cigarette Candy Yes No No Yes Short film Cigarette Candy (2009)
2011 The Strange Ones Yes Yes No Yes Short film The Strange Ones (2011
2013 Social Butterfly Yes Yes No Yes Short film Social Butterfly (2013)
2016 Collective: Unconscious Yes Yes No Yes Anthology Collective Unconscious (2016)
2017 The Strange Ones Yes Yes No Yes Feature The Strange Ones (2017)

Television
Year Program Episode Role Ref(s)
2018 Queen Sugar Season 3, Episode 3: Your Distant Destiny Director [25]
2019 Cloak & Dagger Season 2, Episode 6: B Sides Director [23]
2020 Dare Me Season 1, Episode 3: Surrender at Discretion Director [24]

References
  1. "Curriculum Vitae". Lauren Wolkenstein. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  2. Craig Elvy (March 22, 2018). "Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar Has All Women Directors For Third Season". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  3. Denise Petski (September 30, 2020). "'Queen Sugar' Resumes Production On Revamped Season 5 With COVID-19, Black Lives Matter & Election Storylines". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  4. "Meet the 2017-2018 Women at Sundance Fellows". Sundance Institute. November 2, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  5. Paula Bernstein (July 18, 2013). "Filmmaker Magazine Names 2013's '25 New Faces of Independent Film'". IndieWire. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  6. Elsa Keslassy (June 23, 2017). "'The Strange Ones,' 'Jean of the Joneses,' 'Etoiles Restantes' Win Prizes at 6th Champs-Elysees Film Festival". Variety. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  7. "The Strange Ones-2017 Outfest". Outfest. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  8. "Sundance Institute Announces Program of Films, Panels and Workshops for First-Ever NEXT WEEKEND". Sundance Institute. July 16, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  9. "Social Butterfly". SXSW. 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  10. "Temple University School of Theater, Film and Media Arts".
  11. "Columbia University School of the Arts". Archived from the original on January 27, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  12. "A Letter to My 14 Year-Old Self". Talkhouse. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "People: Lauren Wolkstein". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  15. Neha Aziz (February 1, 2018). "25 Years of SXSW Film Festival – Lauren Wolkstein". SXSW. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  16. Jason B. Kohl (June 28, 2016). "Cigarette Candy". Short of the Week. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  17. Eric Kohn (March 11, 2017). "Terrence Malick Meets Andrei Tarkovsky in Atmospheric Thriller 'The Strange Ones' — SXSW 2017 Review". IndieWire. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  18. Matt Zoeller Seitz (January 5, 2018). "The Strange Ones". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  19. John Waters (December 1, 2017). "Film: Best of 2017". Artforum. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  20. Dominic Patten (June 6, 2018). "'Queen Sugar' Unveils Final Set Of Directors For All-Female-Helmed Season 3 Of Oprah Winfrey-Ava DuVernay Drama". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  21. Will Thorne (September 30, 2020). "Queen Sugar' Resumes Production on Season 5, Sets Pandemic, Black Lives Matter and Election Storylines". Variety. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  22. "'Queen Sugar' Season 5 on IMDB". IMDB.com. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  23. "How Cloak & Dagger Makes the (Marvel Cinematic) Universe A Better Place". Den of Geek. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  24. "Season 1, Episode 3: Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
  25. Your Distant Destiny (2018)
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