Member Screening Series – Shorts Program

Join us for this month’s NYWIFT Member Screening Series featuring short films. Featured filmmakers are Jane Applegate and Abigail Zealey Bess (Icarus Stops for Breakfast – sneak preview); Jane Applegate and Crystal Jordan (Unfinished – a short preview screening); and Lisa Reznik (Left Bank Bookseller). The filmmakers will be available for a Q&A immediately following the screening.

The series provides members with the opportunity to show their work in a theatrical setting. Screenings take place at Anthology Film Archives, followed by networking at a nearby bar/restaurant.
Icarus Stops for Breakfast (sneak preview)
Abigail Zealey Bess (Director)
Jane Applegate (Producer)
2016, 15m

A young misfit couple on their first romantic camping trip to the mountains gets more than they bargained for when they find they have inadvertently trapped an owl in the back of their pickup truck.

Abigail Zealey Bess is an award winning filmmaker and theatre director. Her debut film, baseball trilogy Play Ball! screened in film festivals globally including the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Director Fortnight, and at over 40 U.S. festivals. In addition to garnering Best Film at seven national film festivals, she was awarded 1st Prize for Best Short Film by a woman director at the LA Women in Film Competition. Her company, Weird Sisters, specializes in developing theatrical and feature film projects dedicated to women’s voices. Recent credits include the award-winning Mary and Louise currently on the film festival circuit, and Icarus Stops For Breakfast. Bess is on the Faculty for the Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts and is represented by Linda Weaver at Access Talent. She lives in NY with Actor Denny Bess and Lulu.

Jane Applegate is a passionate storyteller who transitioned from producing television shows to independent films in 2009. She has produced several features and shorts, including Icarus Stops for Breakfast, directed by Abigail Zealey Bess, and Unfinished, directed by J.P. Pacca. Applegate is currently producing the feature version of Resnik’s Left Bank Booksellerand Caroline’s Wedding, written by Easmanie Michel and to be co-directed by Michel and Abigail Zealey Bess. Her multimedia production company, The Applegate Group Inc., has produced marketing videos for Microsoft, Sprint, Merrill Lynch and other major corporations.


Unfinished (Short Preview)
Jane Applegate (Producer)
Crystal Jordan (Producer)
2016, 15m

Unfinished is a provocative tale of unlikely encounters and unexpected connections. In this short film, we meet Sandy, a young call girl who is surprised when she makes a house call to a suburban home. Her client is not the father who hired her, but his son, Adam, a talented young artist who is dying after a long battle with leukemia. When Adam meets his muse, Sandy, he experiences a deep and life affirming connection before his death.

Crystal Jordan was born and raised on Long Island. She has produced two short films, Unfinished and Stained. Jordan has served as a Board Member with several organizations including Girl Scouts Dakota Horizons, CHC Association of the Dakotas, Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways, and Girl Scout Legislative Network of NY.

Left Bank Bookseller 
Lisa Reznik (Writer, Producer, Co-Director)
2012, 27:30m

Prohibitions against obscenity were making it impossible for James Joyce to publish his novel Ulysses. That is, until Sylvia Beach, the young American proprietor of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company, courageously offered to publish Joyce’s revolutionary novel in France.

Lisa Reznik has written for the screen and for the stage, including period dramas on female literary figures Sylvia Beach and Simone de Beauvoir. She has directed three award-winning short films which have been screened in the U.S. and overseas. Reznik was a participant in the first B&H – Canon Filmmakers Masterclass held in New York in Oct 2015. A firm believer in the power of film to educate and connect people on important topics, she founded the Film Society of Summit (NJ) which screens independent films for the community followed by discussion with the filmmakers.