Leah has been gracious enough to share a bit of her insight on her short filmmaking and how it has prepared her for her first feature length film. So, let’s get into it!

Merrel: What were the circumstances surrounding the production of Twitch? When you set out to make Twitch did you have a particular endgame in mind, like getting distribution or simply visibility?

Leah: I made Twitch while I was studying at NYU. I’ve always thought it best when filmmakers “write what they know” so I began with a very personal story and then expanded out from there.

- Merrel Davis
Uncompleted Works

Check out the full interview here.

Read more about the best panels of 2009 here

Check out the Waterpod episode she directed currently airing on Babelgum.

Artist Mary Mattingly uses any medium to realize an idea, whether it’s photography, video, fashion or installation. With a specialization in interactive architecture and an interest in nomad culture, human conditioning and sustainable living, Mary worked with a team of volunteer engineers to create the Waterpod, a floating, self-sustaining eco-habitat inhabited by six artists for six months that roamed the NYC waterways as an experiment in potential future living spaces and lifestyles 50-100 years from now. Both an expression of art and life, the Waterpod changes as is inhabitants adapt and its systems renew. We spend the day with its crew to see what it is really like to live on a living sculpture.

Mon. Nov. 23rd 2009 12:30pm
Tisch Asia
4th Floor Conference Room
3 Kay Siang Road
Singapore 248923

Navigating the Film Festival Circuit
Brown bag lunch workshop with Leah Meyerhoff

Have you finished your second-year film but don’t know where to begin submitting to festivals? Are you budgeting your thesis and trying to figure out how much to save for marketing? Do you think it is impossible to make money distributing a short film? Have you given up on sending your film out because it is too expensive or too much work? Is your MOS languishing in a closet somewhere?
Then this workshop is for you!

Learn how to make the most of the film festival world - from the moment you finish post until you finally secure distribution. Topics to be covered include: festival submission strategy, inquiry letters, fee waivers, deliverables, clearances, press kits, press releases, self-promotion, DIY marketing, social networking, distribution strategies, legal contracts and self distribution. This workshop will help you make the transition from First Run to Sundance, from Final Cut to the big screen, and from the class room to the real world.

Leah Meyerhoff is a Student Academy Award finalist and Slamdance Grand Jury prize winning Tisch grad who has had great success on the film festival circuit. Her second-year film TWITCH has screened in over 200 festivals, won a dozen international awards and was picked up for distribution by IFC, Reelport, Skandinavia TV, iTunes and Hulu. Her music videos TEAM QUEEN and ETERNAL FLAME have screened in over 50 festivals and aired on LOGO and MTV Europe. She has since been on numerous festival panels and recently served on the Slamdance Narrative Jury. Leah has received press coverage from The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and Film Threat among others, and was also profiled in the “Film School” series on IFC. She holds a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dalton, and the New York Film Academy in Florence, Italy. Leah is currently in development on her first feature film UNICORNS, a Sundance Lab finalist produced by Allison Anders and Heather Rae. For more information, please visit www.leahmeyerhoff.com

Sat. September 26th 2009
12 Van Dam st.
New York NY

How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer,
hailed as “the Bible for short filmmakers,” is a provocative and practical insider’s guide to making a great short film that gets seen.

In this seminar you will learn:
Story
Structure
Production
Distribution
Film Festival Circuit
and How To Actually Make Money From Your Short Film
Act NOW and make a short film that gets screened at top film festivals around the world!

Sydney Underground Film Festival
Sat. September 12th 2009 6:30pm
The Factory Theatre
105 Victoria Rd.
Marrickville, Sydney, Australia

Titillations
Fusebox Cinema

DOG=GOD

Dir. Lulu Keating & Karen Hines / CAN / 2009 / 4:30
A girl loves dogs. She wants to be one. This is an experimental, musical, ecstatic ode to dogs and those who both master and worship them.

My Name is Pochsy: An Industrial Film

Dir. Karen Hines / CAN / 2007 / 7:00
Pochsy works at Mercury Packers … where she packs mercury. A trans-genre ode to industrial propaganda films and a scathing satire for our times. Spouting affirmations culled from sources as disparate as the Dalai Lama, ‘The Secret’ and the Wal-Mart Mission Statement, Pochsy is a spokesgirl for a species on the brink.

What’s My Mother F**king Name?

Dir. Amber Dawn / CAN / 2008 / 4:25
A female bondage model struggling to be free is juxtaposed with a narration that moves through issues of sex work, queer and feminine identity, class, immigration, consumerism, global health and quality of life.

Neurotica

Dir. Leah Meyerhoff / USA / 2001 / 4:00
A young woman eats her lunch according to a precisely calibrated routine. Today, she is interrupted by a man seeking sexual gratification.

Mind’s Eye

Dir. Bernice Ong / AUS / 2007 / 4:10
An odd mix of terror and detachment, as in a dream sequence, is situated in a state between reality and fiction.

A Tax on Pochsy

Dir. Karen Hines / CAN / 2009 / 18:30
Set in the waiting room at an audit from hell sits Pochsy, a mercury-poisoned factory worker who glows like the ghost of a silent film star and is pretty as a corpse. Part confession, part alibi, Pochsy is the subversively seductive anti-heroine.

Twitch

Dir. Leah Meyerhoff / USA / 2005 / 10:00
A young girl torn between two worlds: her domestic life where she must care for her wheelchair-bound mother and her escape into the emerging world of adolescence with her hormone-addled boyfriend.

The Crooked Eye

Dir. D.C Douglas / USA / 2009 / 18:44
Part live action and part animation, this film is a dreamy portrait of troubled young woman, Sharon, as she struggles with a recent divorce and a current perception problem.

Family History

Dir. Shelley Jordon / USA / 2009 / 2:40
An animated painting, which explores issues of vulnerability and how each new experience is filtered through our perceptions of previous ones.

Salome’s Picnic

Dir. Victoria Waghorn / AUS / 2008 / 1:00
A set picnic blanket sits unattended in the depths of a forest. Two lovers lie beyond coupled in a deep embrace. A generic picture of erotic bliss. Or is it?

Fyre

Dir. Maia Sinclair-Ferguson / AUS / 2009 / 4:00
A distorted narrative where abject images of female empowerment are transferred from body to body.

Hey F**k Face

Dir. Amber Dawn / CAN / 2008 / 4:15
Medical specimens, gender bending Christian clergy and kinky sex are just a few of the topics the whimsical narrator touches on.

Lash

Dir. Elka Kerkhofs / AUS / 2008 / 5:26
Celina discovers that religious persecution cannot kill the power of love.

Chick Addict

Dir. Victoria Waghorn / AUS / 2009 / 2:00
A playful & erotic experimental exposition of one woman & her hedonistic addiction for chicks.

Laptop backlash poses particular difficulties for people without offices, says Leah Meyerhoff, 29, a film director and free-lancer. She long has used coffee shops to interview cast and crew and to work on pre-production. Now, she says, “it’s a constant search for places with the Internet where I can sit and focus without being frowned upon.”

- Erica Alini
Wall Street Journal

Check out the full article here.

Short Film Distribution - Learn How the Pros Do It
Sunday August 9th 2009 12:00pm
Laemmle Sunset
Los Angeles, CA
Moderated by Roberta Munroe
Panelists: Leah Meyerhoff, Orly Ravid, Todd Luoto, Carsen Mell

Short Film Distribution

Moderator - Roberta Marie Munroe
Roberta is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, entrepreneur, international short film festival programmer, consultant. After programming shorts at Sundance for 5 years, Roberta wrote a book to share what she’d learned. How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer (Amazon Bestseller List) is a provocative and practical insider’s guide to making a great short film that many reviewers have deemed the short filmmaker Bible. An articulate and entertaining speaker, Munroe has a keen insider’s take on the production and business of short filmmaking. In a media world that is increasingly dominated by the short film format, including online and mobile content, Roberta’s knowledge and rock solid advice are more valuable than ever for short form media makers everywhere.

Panelists:
Todd Luoto, Sundance Film Festival & Independent Filmmaker
Todd Luoto is a Chapman University film school graduate. After a stint in development at Miramax/Dimension Films, he worked as a journalist for Kodak, while touring the festival circuit with his own - very flawed - short film. Loving the festival community, he became a programmer at Newport Beach Film Festival, Special Projects Director for Silver Lake Film Festival and a feature screener for the Sundance Film Festival. Luoto currently serves as a Shorts Programmer and Shorts Coordinator for Sundance, as well as Associate Programmer for CineVegas. He loathes birthday cake served with fruit.

Carson Mell, Independent Filmmaker
Carson is an Arizona native living in Hollywood, CA. His films have screened several times at Sundance and he is the most frequent contributor to “Wholphin,” a popular DVD magazine. Last year the San Francisco Film Society hosted a solo exhibition of his films and a reading from his first novel, “Saguaro,” the main character of the which is also the subject of Carson’s two most popular films, “Chonto” and “Bobby Bird: The Devil in Denim.” Often, Carson simultaneously develops characters through both film and prose.

Orly Ravid, New American Vision, Sundance Film Festival
Orly is a 10-year industry veteran, a marketing & distribution maverick whose experience in film ranges from festival programming to acquisitions & distribution.

After serving, this past 2 years, as VP of Acquisitions and Distribution at Senator Entertainment’s US division, Orly has refocused her energies at her marketing and distribution company, New American Vision. She, and her partner Jeffrey Winter, help indie filmmakers get the most of out distribution.

Orly has consulted for various independent distributors and filmmakers handling all aspects of film distribution from acquisitions, foreign sales, business affairs / contract negotiation, digital distribution licensing, theatrical releasing and grass roots marketing. Orly regularly speaks on panels at Sundance, LAFF, AFI, Cannes and many other festivals and film markets regarding new technology and digital distribution.

More details coming soon!

Detailed schedule after the jump.

WHAT: The festival kicks off with opening night celebration At the DGA Theatre in Hollywood presented by Royalty Rope Events to honor and feature 3 short films shot by acclaimed cinematographer Darren Lew:
*”Streak” Directed by Demi Moore (Mr. Brooks)
*”Welcome” Directed by Kirsten Dunst (Spiderman)
*“Bugcrush” Directed by Carter Smith (The Ruins)
*The HollyShorts Opening Night celebration also marks the Hollywood Premiere of “Kidnapping Caitlynn,” a short film starring Jason Biggs (American Pie), Julie Benz (Dexter), Rhys Coiro (Entourage) and Jenny Mollen (My Best Friend’s Girl) Directed by Katherine Cunningham-Eves (Murdering Mamma’s Boy), all confirmed to attend and participate in a special Q&A session.
• Festival to showcase over 90 of the best and brightest short films, music videos and webisodes from around the world.

WHEN: August 6-13, 2009

WHERE: A variety of high profile venues throughout Hollywood including:
• Opening Night Celebration: Thursday August 6, 2009 at the DGA Theatre in Hollywood, 7920 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.
• HollyShorts Short Film Screenings, Industry Panels, Q&A’s and special receptions: August 7-9, 2009 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Hollywood, 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, 90046.
• HollyShorts Red Camera Seminar presented by Clifton Production Services: Friday August 7, 2009 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
• HollyShorts and Haydenfilms Showcase: Friday, August 7, 2009 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
• HollyShorts Industry Panels hosted by Jamie Linden (We Are Marshall): Saturday, August 8, 2009 and Sunday, August 9, 2009.
• HollyShorts and Actor Jimmy Jean Louis’s (Heroes) Hollywood Unites for Haiti Charity VIP Celebration: Saturday, August 8, 2009 at The Kress in Hollywood Presented by Royalty Rope Events.
• HollyShorts Awards: Sunday, August 9, 2009 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
• HollyShorts Back lot: Festival winners and feature film screenings: August 10-13 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5.
• Hollywood premiere of acclaimed independent film Knuckle Draggers Written and Directed by Alex Ranarivelo: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
WHY: HollyShorts is an organization devoted to showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe, advancing the careers of filmmakers through screenings, networking events, and various panel and forums. Last year’s festival featured appearances and short films from actors Jessica Biel, David Arquette and Josh Brolin, the festival awarded legendary filmmaker David Lynch the 2008 HollyShorts Visionary Award; Oscar winner Paul Haggis with the 2008 HollyShorts Outstanding Achievement in film award and fast-rising actress Paula Garces with the 2008 HollyShorts Future Star award.

HOW: Tickets and full festival schedule: www.hollyshorts.com.
For Interviews and Press Credentials, please contact:
Erica Sardarian (erica@hollyshorts.com) 818-760-9897
Talent Submissions please contact:
Isandra Gonzalez (Isag22@gmail.com) 22 Entertainment (Talent)

2009 HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL JURY
• Mark Fergus, Writer (Ironman, Children of Men, Consequence)
• Jimmy Jean-Louis, Actor (Heroes)
• Bill Purple, Writer, Director, Producer (Hole in the Paper Sky, Iron Ocean Films)
• Jessy Terrero, Writer, Director, Producer (Soul Plane, music videos for 50 Cent, Sean Paul, The Lox, G-Unit)
• Lucas Carter, The Weinstein Co. Director, Production and Development
• Larry Hankin, Writer, Actor, Director (Friends, Seinfeld)
• Peter Russell, Story Analyst (Walden (AFG) Films (The Chronicles of Narnia), and Participant Productions (An Inconvenient Truth), Imagine Films, and CBS Television Network)
• Amy Draughn, Production (Brolin Productions)
• Jeff Vespa, Writer, Director, Actor (co-Founder Wireimage, Nosebleed)
• Jamie Linden, Writer (We Are Marshall, Dear John, The Dogs of Babel)
• Maurissa Tanchoreon, Writer, Actress (Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
• Jedd Whedon Writer, Composer, Actor (Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
• Arianna Jackson, Partner, Producer, Chill Entertainment (G, Confessions of a Memory Eater)
• Leah Meyerhoff, Writer, Director (Twitch, Unicorns)
• Eric Robles , Executive Producer, Creator Nickelodeon’s Fanboy and Chum Chum
Stacey Parks, Stacey Parks, founder of Film Specific and author of The Insider’s Guide To Independent Film Distribution
• William Olsson, Director (An American Affair)