AMPAS ADDS WOMEN DIRECTORS: With our commitment to reviewing all new releases written and/or directed by women, FF2 Media now plays an important role in breaking down barriers. AMPAS invited 683 new members this year, 49 of whom are female directors. Who are they? What are their stories? We already know them, and we are here to tell you!
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Kathryn “Katie” Aselton is an American actress, film director and producer. She directed and co-starred in The Freebie and appeared in a short film titled “Scrapple” opposite husband Mark Duplass and his brother Jay Duplass who also wrote and directed the short.
Aselton made her feature length film debut in The Puffy Chair opposite Mark Duplass, who directed the film alongside his brother Jay. The film premiered at Sundance in January 2005 and was released on June 2, 2006, in a limited release. Aselton has appeared in the short film “The Intervention and various television shows like The Office, The League and Togetherness.
In 2012, she directed a the feature film Black Rock, telling the story of three childhood friends who reunite for a girls’ weekend on a remote island off the coast of Maine and end up in a deadly fight for survival.
Excerpt of FF2 Media review of Black Rock from May 17, 2013:
The three women who used to be a tight-knit trio head off on a weekend excursion that mimics a whole season of Survivor compressed into ~ 90 minutes. Aselton as filmmaker/star is terrific. Watching her transform from bitch to warrior made every bloody, gory minute worth watching.
I’m not generally one for horror movies, so the Black Rock poster–with the ominous words “not every island is a paradise” printed above an empty rowboat–was a bit of a turnoff. But I am totally committed to women filmmakers having the right to express their own visions as they see fit, so I went. Surprise! I not only found Black Rock tense and gripping, but I also found myself thinking about it a great deal after I left the theatre. Maybe I’m nuts, but I think there is much more to Black Rock than I went looking for when I bought my ticket…
Katie Aselton is terrific as Abby. This is Aselton’s story and she is the director (although her husband Mark Duplass also has a screenplay credit). Honestly her name was totally new to me and I didn’t know about their relationship until I looked her up later in IMDb. So it turns out I have seen her before in supporting roles in other Duplass films (e.g., The Puffy Chair, Cyrus, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home), but to my eyes she was a totally new and very dynamic screen presence.
Read full review of Black Rock: https://ff2media.azurewebsites.net/thehotpinkpen/2013/05/17/black-rock/
Read more about Katie Aselton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Aselton
Top Photo: Kate Bosworth, Katie Aselton & Lake Bell in “Black Rock.”
Photo Credits: LD Entertainment
