Bitterbrush
TFI Suppport
TFI Network 2020
Logline
In the remote and rugged mountains of the American West, two young women contemplate the future as they work alone herding cattle.
Emelie Mahdavian
Director, Producer, Editor
Emelie Mahdavian is a filmmaker and Fulbright scholar who focuses on Central Asian cinema. Her feature documentary AFTER THE CURTAIN, about the struggles of four women dancers in Tajikistan, premiered at Lincoln Center as part of the 44th Dance on Camera and continues to screen at festivals worldwide. Her experimental motion capture dance film INTANGIBLE BODY, exploring censorship of women’s dance in Iran, is being exhibited at museums and international festivals. She was previously Director of the Davis Feminist Film Festival, Panels Coordinator for the Mill Valley Film Festival, and she has worked in film and television production for FX, Amazon, Columbia Pictures, HBO, CBS, and ABC. Emelie studied Filmmaking at London Film School, Music and Philosophy at Mills College and New England Conservatory of Music, and has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with an emphasis in Film Practice as Research from the University of California, Davis, where she also teaches Film Studies and Cinema and Digital Media.
Su Kim
Producer
Su Kim is a documentary producer in New York City. Her work has received numerous grants including from ITVS, Sundance Documentary Fund, NYSCA, California Humanities Council and Tribeca Film Institute. She was a 2015 Women at Sundance Fellow. Currently, she is producing ONE BULLET AFGHANISTAN with director Carol Dysinger, SANSON and ME with director Rodrigo Reyes, and MIDNIGHT TRAVELER with director Hassan Fazili and producer Emelie Mahdavian. Her recent film HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING with director RaMell Ross and producer Joslyn Barnes premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and won U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Derek Howard
Cinematographer
Derek Howard is an acclaimed director and cinematographer who has collaborated on some of the most innovative films in recent years, including Brett Stroy’s THE HOTTEST AUGUST, which was listed as one the best films of 2019 by Variety, and AQUARELLA, Victor Kossakovky’s opus on the power of the water cycle. His collaborations have led to screenings at Venice, TIFF, Sundance, HotDocs, IDFA, and many others. He was a participant in the IDFA Summer School, IDFAcademy, Reykjavik International Film Festival’s TransAtlantic Talent Lab, and the Berlinale Talents program. Derek was the assistant director and 2nd cinematographer for Kossakovky’s VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS. He directed THE HARVESTER, which premiered at True/False.