Join us for a screening of Materna screening from August 9th through 11th, followed by a conversation with Producer Liz Cardenas, Producer Emily McEvoy, and Actor / Co-Writer / Exec Producer Assol Abdullina.
Materna follows the journeys of four New York women who are isolated by city life, separated by class, politics, race and religion, and yet bound by a shared hunger for identity and connection.
With their futures at stake, the characters’ lives are upended by a fateful encounter underground, where their stories of personal transformation become a battle for survival.
Screening Dates: Film available on Topic from Monday, August 9th starting at 9:00AM through Wednesday, August 11th
Q&A: Wednesday, August 11th at 4:00pm ET. In discussion with with Producer Liz Cardenas, Producer Emily McEvoy, and Actor / Co-Writer / Exec Producer Assol Abdullina. Moderated by NYWIFT Program Manager, Barbara Vasconez.
How to See the Film: A link will be sent out
Cost: $2 NYWIFT Members / $3 Non-Members + Q&A is Free for all
Panelists
A 2019 Independent Spirit Award nominee, Liz Cardenas’ notable producing credits include Roshan Sethi’s 7 Days, a Duplass Brothers production premiering at Tribeca 2021 starring Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan; Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back (Sundance ‘18), starring Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone and Kyle Mooney; David Lowery’s A Ghost Story (Sundance’17), starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck (both distributed by A24); and Daniel Laabs’ Jules of Light & Dark (Best US Narrative Feature at Outfest 2019). A 2018 Rotterdam Lab and 2017 Film Independent Lab Fellow, also participated in the 2018 Producers Workshops and Network at the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival on behalf of Cinemart (IFFR). Included in LATINXT 2019, a highly curated list of emerging Latino creators, Liz is from Texas, based in LA, and represented by Authentic Talent and Literary Mgmt.
Emily McEvoy is a New York based producer. She produced Radium Girls, starring Golden-globe nominee Joey King and Abby Quinn (2018 Tribeca Film Festival), which is being released by Juno Films and Netflix this summer. McEvoy produced the short film Cheer Up Baby, directed by Adinah Dancyger and starring Bobbi Menuez (Sundance 2018). She is currently in post-production on the feature Petra Vack, directed by Betsey Brown, starring Peter Vack. McEvoy worked as Creative Executive at Cine Mosaic, where she worked on over 9 films, including the Academy Award-nominated Cutie and the Boxer, The Lunchbox, and the Disney film Queen of Katwe. She is from Ann Arbor, where she also attended college at the University of Michigan.
Assol Abdullina is a NYC based writer and actress from Kyrgyzstan. Abdullina won the Best Actress Award for Materna at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, where she was also nominated for Best Screenplay and the Nora Ephron Award. She is a recent graduate of The New School for Drama. Film: First Snow, He/She/Exit/Signs, Only Solomon Lee, The Birds Of Paradise. Theater: Arcticfox in Annie Dorsen’s”The Slow Room” at Performance Space New York; Mandy in Donald Margulies’s “Time Stands Still” at 13th Street Rep. She lives in Queens, New York.
Barbara Vásconez (moderator) is the Program Manager at NYWIFT. Before joining NYWIFT, she held the position of General Manager at the Quad Cinema for three years. She has worked for a variety of film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Rooftop Films, Hamptons Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the Nantucket Film Festival. Her spare time is spent programming panels and creating unique community engagement opportunities for the New York Latino Film Festival. In 2019, she launched and founded the Ville Film Festival in Somerville, New Jersey. In 2020, she joined the Ecuadorian Film Festival as Co-Director. Her educational goals include working to develop film programs in New Jersey that improve film education for low income students. She works on amplifying the Latinx community and speaking on important issues like immigration and minimum wage. She is committed to the importance of film as a means of community engagement. Barbara has a degree in Film and Video Production from the School of Visual arts in NYC and holds a Business certificate from W.O.R.C in Philadelphia.
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#nywift | @nywift
NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
