Synopsis
Mid-Film Crisis concludes a humorous trilogy that explores the quandary of a single filmmaker, “Kara,” who realizes, perhaps too late, that her life as an artist has intercepted more conventional goals of getting married (Bachelorette, 34) and having a baby (39½). Mid-Film Crisis, a similarly comedic fiction/nonfiction hybrid film, reintroduces recurring characters in their real and fictionalized roles, and expands upon themes. Kara and her Mom resume their arguments of the two previous films, opening up their conversation to include on-set actors and crew and other interviewees
Key Personnell
Kara Herold: Director, Producer, Animator, Editor
Filmmaker Kara Herold’s works employ wit, thought-provoking storytelling and dynamic visual assemblages to comment upon the uneasy intersections between feminist perspectives and dominant cultural expectations and institutions. She has written, directed and produced a broad variety of films, from short animations to award-winning documentaries. Bachelorette, 34, a humorous take on society’s obsession with marriage expressed through a mother-daughter relationship, distributed by New Day Films, premiered at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam and played at the Documentary Fortnight at MoMA in New York. Grrlyshow, about the girl ’zine explosion in the ’90s, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at many additional festivals, and is distributed by Women Make Movies. Her first feature comedy, 39 ½, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival. She recently finished a short film entitled The Callback, written in collaboration with Lisa McElroy, that screened at Mill Valley Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival and Santa Fe International Film Festival to name a few.
Alex Mendez: Director of Photography (Fiction)
Alex Mendez Giner is an associate professor in the Department of Film and Media Arts at Syracuse University where he teaches cinematography and scriptwriting. He has screened his work in major international film festivals, among them Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, Interfilm Berlin International Short Film Festival, Milan International Film Festival, Viña del Mar International Film Festival, Sapporo International Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival.
Anjali Sundaram: Director of Photography (Fiction)
Anjali Sundaram is a film professor at City College in San Francisco. Her multimedia collaborations with the collective “I, Daughter of Kong” have appeared at The Lab and Southern Exposure in San Francisco, Swing Space in New York, Co-Lab in Austin and Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic in Zagreb, Croatia. Her work has screened at microcinemas and film festivals nationally and abroad. A recipient of awards from the Princess Grace and the Robin Eickman Foundations, she was an artist in residence at A Ship in the Woods in California.
David Alvarado: Cinematographer
David Alvarado is a documentary director focusing on science, technology and human rights. He co-founded Structure Films, where he directed feature films including The Immortalists (2014), Bill Nye: Science Guy (2017), Blood Sugar Rising (2020) and We Are As Gods (2022), among other shorts and series. His new project is about legendary Chicano playwright and filmmaker, Luis Valdez.
Tina DiFeliciantonio: Camera and Jane C. Wagner: Sound
Partners in Naked Eye Productions Ltd. since 1988, Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio have screened their critically acclaimed work at museums, film festivals and educational institutions, and been broadcast in countries throughout the world. From cinema vérité to impressionistic documentaries, DiFeliciantonio and Wagner have tackled a diverse range of subjects (from AIDS, teenage sexuality, child abuse, body image and teaching tolerance to alien abduction), garnering dozens of top honors, including two National Emmy Awards for Outstanding Cultural Programming and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.
Ann Kaneko: Cinematographer
Ann Kaneko is known for her personal films that weave her intimate aesthetic with the complex intricacies of political reality. An Emmy Award winner, her poetic feature Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, premiered at the 2021 Big Sky Film Festival and was broadcast on public television’s primetime POV lineup in 2022. She is currently in development on 45/45, a personal film about the beginning and end of life. Her work has screened internationally and been commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Endowment and Skirball Cultural Center. Other films include A Flicker in Eternity, based on Stanley Hayami’s diary; Against The Grain: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Peru, highlighting Peruvian political artists; Overstay, about Japanese undocumented workers, and 100% Human Hair, a musical for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.
Ellen Bruno: Story Consultant
Ellen Bruno is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. Her films Samsara, Satya, Sacrifice, Leper, Sky Burial, and Split: The Early Years and Split Up: The Teen Years have played at top-tier film festivals around the world, among them the Sundance Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. With an MFA in documentary film from Stanford University, she is the recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, a Goldie Award for Outstanding Artist, Alpert Award for the Arts, Anonymous Was A Woman Award for the Arts and Shenkin Fellowship from Yale University School of Art. She was an artist-in- Residence at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
