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Wifey.tv is collaborating with Film Fatales LA and Cinefamily to start a new screening series focused on women directors and their short films called Wifey Presents.

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The first of these screenings will happen on July 26th at Cinefamily and will feature six shorts directed by Shaz Bennett, Brooke Sebold, Sarah Shapiro, Maggie Kiley, Sian Heder, and Jennifer Phang.

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Here is an interview with Shaz Bennett, whose short, Alaska is a Drag, will be featured at the first Wifey Presents.

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What was the moment you realized you wanted to be a filmmaker?

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I started taking tickets at the Sundance Film Festival when I was 15 years old.  I got to watch all these amazing independent film when I was a teenager -- some that I can think of right now -- Gas, Food Lodging, Grief, Another Brother From Another Planet, Swoon, Orlando, Silverlake Life, Mi Vida Loca, High Art.  I remember going to a retrospective of Chinese Cinematographer/Director Xhang Yimou (Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Yellow Earth) too that rocked my world.  Sundance and film festivals changed my whole path.  I was a little kid growing up in Salt lake City and those movies opened me up to new worlds and gave me new goals.  From then on, I wanted to make the kind of films that I experienced first as an audience member.

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When did you first feel like a director?

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I've always done my own films and performances out of necessity -- I never had a lot of money but I could always write and I could usually find a camera or a theater, so I just went out and made stuff or performed stories in theaters and abandoned warehouses around the world.  But, I think the first time I felt like a "real" director was just this last month directing my feature film Alaska is a Drag with a "real" cast and a "real" crew.  It wasn't one specific moment but the overall experience where all these people were working with me to bring the words that I typed up -- the words that I used to describe the world and the characters -- and then last month with the help of all these people those words and those characters came to life.

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How was being a part of the Film Fatale's community helped you?

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I grew up with a powerful female role model in my mother and I love working with women because they tend to take on more than just their one role or position -- they are excellent multi-taskers.  I have on whole had incredible working relationships with women so when I first heard about the Film Fatales -- it felt like home.  The Fatales is all about peer to peer mentorship -- we all come to that business with a lot of experiences but not always the same experiences.  I've learned so much from my fellow Fatales and know that I can rely on them when I need advice, everything from legal advice to how do you approach a fight scene?  We get pretty nerdy at times about the art of directing -- it's not about "networking" or what can I get from you -- it's just about the craft and what can I add to the conversation and the overall community.  I'm always so inspired when I leave the monthly gatherings -- and that's what I need most to keep going in this business is the current climate and the depressing numbers of working women directors.

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What is your favorite movie?

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My all time favorite movie is Aki Kaurismaki's La Vie de Boheme.  I have a poster above our bed and it's the one film that I just can watch over and over and always see something new.  Then if you asked me to name my next top ten - it would change month to month but some inspirations are: Alison Anders, Lynn Shelton, Kim Pierce, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Aki Kaurismaki, Aza Jacobs, Francois Truffaunt, Luis Bunuel, Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow - some because I know them and have seen how hard they work to get there and they inspire me because they also make it all feel possible in an impossible business and then other because their films just blow me over with their images and stories that connect like they were my own.  When I watch a film where I am nothing like the characters and yet I identify like they are family - I feel transported into another world and walk out changed.  That's all I want to do as a director and I want make movies like that.

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What is your favorite bad movie/guilty pleasure?

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I'm not even sure they're guilty pleasures -- mostly just pleasure ... Road House, Flashdance, Jackie's Back, Sparkle.

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Check out our profile from last week Brooke Sebold!

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 .Buy tickets to Wifey Presents!

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