Declaring Your Independents: Working in Independent Film

4:00–5:00 P.M. – 4th Floor, Class A
Become an Indie Film Star and Meet a Top Sundance Filmmaker and an Award-Winning Casting Director with Major Feature Film & Disney Credits. Indie films have been providing breakout roles to actors for many years now. Casting directors with indie credits share tips on getting cast in this exciting area of cinema. Moderated by Daniel Holloway, News and Features Editor, Back Stage.

Speakers
-- Jen Rudin, Casting Director
-- Eric Mendelsohn, Director-Writer


SPEAKER BIOS

Jen Rudin, Casting Director
Jen Rudin, CSA, is an award-winning casting director based in New York City. She spent seven years as a casting executive at the Walt Disney Company, first in Burbank, Calif., as head of feature animation casting and then back in New York City as director of casting and talent development for Disney Theatrical Productions.

Favorite casting credits include Disney's "The Princess and the Frog," "The Incredibles," and the original production of Jason Robert Brown's musical "13" at the Mark Taper Forum. Current projects include the following films: "Squirrels to the Nuts," directed by Peter Bogdanovich; "The American Side" "It Must Be Love" "A Contract With God" and the animated movie "Turkeys," starring Owen Wilson.

Jen is a former professional child actress and an avid cyclist. For more info, visit www.jenrudin.com.

Eric Mendelsohn, Director-Writer
Eric Mendelsohn's feature film debut, "Judy Berlin," starring Edie Falco of "The Sopranos," Madeline Kahn, Barbara Barrie, and Julie Kavner, was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), won best director at Sundance and best independent film at the Hamptons Film Festival, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards.

His short film, "Through an Open Window," starring Anne Meara and Cynthia Nixon, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, enjoyed festival screenings internationally, was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), and garnered him a guest spot on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

His new film, "3 Backyards," premiered in competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered the best director award, making Eric the only person in the festival's history to have received the award twice. His screenplays have been developed at the Sundance Institute's labs, and he is a producer on the documentary films of Rebecca Dreyfus, including "Stolen," which garnered the best documentary prize at the New York/Avignon Film Festival, and "Bye Bye Babushka."

Eric is a mentor for the Sundance Institute's writers' lab and recently served as story editor on lab fellow Alex Rivera's feature debut, "Sleep Dealer." In the field of film design, Eric worked for writer-director Woody Allen for over eight years on such films as "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Husbands and Wives," "Bullets Over Broadway," "Alice," and "Everyone Says I Love You."

MODERATOR

Daniel Holloway, News and Features Editor, Back Stage
Daniel Holloway joined Back Stage as national news editor in 2009. Previously, he was a writer and film critic for the daily newspaper Metro. He began his career as a news assistant on the sports desk at the Tallahassee Democrat and later became a copy editor at The Miami Herald.

He has been a regular contributor to Time Out New York, The Huffington Post, National Public Radio, and The Comics Journal.