Our very own Heidi Philipsen in attendance at Sundance, please read on: Local upstate New York resident, writer/actress/director/producer Heidi Elizabeth Philipsen-Meissner, is at the Sundance Film Festival for the first time because of two made-in-upstate-New York feature films, “This is Nowhere” and “The Better Angels,” and a new chapter of Women in Film and Television non-profit organization, UPWIFT (Upstate Women in Film & Television). She’s producing the film THIS IS NOWHERE, scribed by fellow local resident writer/helmer team of Jon Russell and Tracy Nichol Cring. The indie feature, about a teenaged girl searching for an identity outside of her life’s immediate reality, is scheduled for production in late August of 2014 under her independent feature film development company, Personae Entertainment (personaeenetertainment). Heidi’s also celebrating the made-in-the-Hudson Valley indie feature, “THE BETTER ANGELS,” (filmguide.sundance.org/film/13947/the_better_angels) screening under the festival’s New Frontier Films Official Selection; Ms Philipsen was both production coordinator and actress on the much-anticipated film written and directed by A.J. Edwards and starring Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger, Brit Marling and Wes Bentley. What makes Heidi’s journey so special is that she has been able to build a diverse portfolio of professional independent feature film experiences not in Los Angeles or New York City, as filmmakers stereotypically do, but rather in the Capital District and Hudson Valley Regions – all while also raising a family as mother of two children, now ages 9 and 11 years. “Go figure,” she says, “after pounding the pavement as a non-union actress in New York City for years in competition with hundreds of other actresses and studying film in Michigan, I find my big break in the Hudson Valley and Capital District Regions.” Indeed, since moving to Schenectady from Ann Arbor, Michigan in late 2007, when her husband took on a new job at General Electric within its Renewable Energy team right out of graduate school, Heidi has worked on a total of eleven (11) features (SALT, THE OTHER GUYS, COLD IN JULY, THE BETTER ANGELS, and the German KATIE FFORDE series) and several shorts, including her own, HER TELLING HEART, joined the Screen Actors Guild union for professional film actors, and developed trade skills as film production office coordinator and stunt precision driver that has served her well for consistent work in the industry. “I love upstate New York,” she says, adding, “I got my first union acting job and was trained as a precision driver by one of L.A.’s top stunt driving coordinators (Bill Young) for the Angelina Jolie action/thriller SALT. Upon arriving here, I found the organization Upstate Independents (upstateindependents) and very supportive film commissions all which, together, provided me with a great, collaborative group of passionate and knowledgeable grassroots filmmakers who inspired and supported me in going after my professional goals. I discovered that I could have the best of both worlds, as both mother and moviemaker, in upstate New York.” She’s taking that revelation and passing it on to other women like her by creating and founding an upstate chapter of the non-profit organization for women in film in television (UPWIFT). Currently a project under 501-3C fiscal sponsorship of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) in New York City, UPWIFT had its first, organized meeting on February 28, 2013 and includes an impressive list of women film and television professionals based around the Capital District and Hudson Valley Regions (upwift.org). Ms Philipsen-Meissner says she’s extremely excited to be serving as an unofficial ambassador to upstate New York and its can-do, “get it done” attitude toward making films happen, whatever the size, individual production needs or budget. “The strides I’ve taken in my career have happened as a result of being in upstate New York – and there are so many other colleagues of mine who I know feel the same – the last five years have been amazing. I’m excited about the next five.” ###
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:45:35 +0000
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