Respect for Acting

Join Film Fatales on Friday December 11th 2pm PT for Respect for Acting with actors Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black), Dawn Lyen-Gardner (Queen Sugar, Luke Cage), Michelle Hurd (Star Trek: Picard), and Monica Raymund (Hightown). Moderated by Film Fatales member Elisabeth Subrin (A Woman, A Part).

This panel discussion will focus on the creative partnership between Actors and Directors. How does this very special relationship play out from different points of view? What are performers looking for in terms of direction? What communication techniques have directors found to be most helpful? How does this dynamic translate to our current times? Come hear it from the source!

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If you missed the event, no worries! You can catch up on past events and watch HERE

Alysia Reiner plays the badass Natalie “Fig” Figueroa on Orange is the New Black and won a SAG AWARD as part of the incredible cast. However, IRL she’s an actress, activist, producer and eco-momma who uses her superpowers for good. You can also catch her as Sunny on critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning Better Things on F/X and Kiki Rains on HBO’s The Deuce. Also, she both starred in & produced the Sundance Film Festival hit Equity & Tribeca Film Festival favorite Egg, which is 100% fresh on ROTTEN TOMATOES. A few other recent adventures include getting naked on Broad City with Abbi and Ilana and going head to head against Annalise on How To Get Away with Murder. She loves working as a change maker for women. As an advocate for women’s rights & climate change initiatives, she is an original member of TIMES UP, an ambassador for GDIM, and even started an eco-fashion initiative, Livari. Alysia has been invited to speak at The White House, The United Nations, Google, Cannes Lion, Women’s Media Summit, Collision, and countless film festivals and other events about breaking barriers for women in all fields, specifically the entertainment industry. And she’s really proud to have been awarded the Persistence of Vision Award by the Women’s Media Summit, the Sarah Powell Leadership Award by the Women’s Prison Association, the MUSE Made In NY Award from The Mayor’s office & New York Women in Film and TV, the Moves Power Women Award, the Pioneer in Filmmaking Award, the Collaboration Award from the Coalition for Women in the Arts and Media.

Dawn-Lyen Gardner is best known for her current role as Charley Bordelon-West on the critically-acclaimed hit series Queen Sugar, created by Ava DuVernay and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey. As an actor, she has been featured in film, television, theater and voiceover, including Marvel’s Luke Cage and animated Star Wars series, The Clone Wars. As a teaching artist and speaker, Dawn-Lyen’s advocacy work has long intersected with her artist work, ranging from youth arts empowerment to racial justice organizing to women’s issues and equity. She has long admired Women for Women International, having first encountered their work while playing a Congolese survivor of war in a production of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Ruined.

Monica Raymund (Director/Actor) is a Dominican-Jewish artist. Upon graduating from The Juilliard School, Monica went on to star in various tv/film/theater projects. Most recently she played Gabriela Dawson in NBC’s Chicago Fire and is currently in production as the lead in season 2 of the Starz’s drama Hightown. As a director, Monica was accepted into the NBC Female Forward program and has directed episodes at Law & Order: SVU, F.B.I., and Hightown. Monica’s short film Tanya won several awards including Best Short Film at Midwest Independent Film Festival. Upon completion of Hightown’s season 2, Monica will return to NYC to direct for Dick Wolf’s F.B.I. on CBS.

Michelle Hurd can currently be seen as Raffi on CBS All Access’ hit series Star Trek: Picard which continues the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart). She can also be seen in Justin Simien’s Sundance Film Festival breakout Bad Hair, premiering on Hulu. And soon to be seen in Pose. Last year Hurd starred in the CBS pilot reboot of Cagney and Lacey portraying Lacey, as co-lead opposite Sarah Drew’s “Cagney”. In addition to her explosive performance as “Shepherd” on NBC’s hit drama, Blindspot, Hurd is also known for Starz’s hit horror comedy Ash Vs. Evil Dead, the Marvel Universe series’ Daredevil and Jessica Jones (“DA Samantha Reyes”), and the A&E summer series, The Glades (“Colleen Manus”). Other television credits include Hawaii Five-0, Lethal Weapon, Younger, Devious Maids, 90210, Witches of East End, How To Get Away With Murder, Bosch, Mysteries of Laura, Pretty Little Liars, Raising Hope, The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU (“Det. Jeffries”), Gossip Girl, ER, Bones, According To Jim, Law & Order, Smith, Skin, Leap Years, Charmed, The O.C., Kevin Hill, The Practice, and Another World. Some favorite theater credits inclued, Getting Away with Murder on Broadway, The Violet Hour at South Coast Rep, The Dog in The Manger at the Shakespear National Theater, in which she won a Robbie award for Best-Surporting Actress in a drama. Other film credits include Being Frank opposite Jim Gaffigan, Be Afraid, We Don’t Belong Here (alongside Catherine Keener and Maya Rudolph), Search Engines, Within The Dark, Girl Most Likely, Random Hearts, Personals, Double Parked, Wolf, and King of New York. Hurd is a proud alumnus of NYC’s premiere artist community at Westbeth.

Elisabeth Subrin is a writer/director, video artist and associate professor of film and media arts at Temple University. Her critically acclaimed first feature narrative, A Woman, A Part was theatrically released in 2017. Her award-winning short films and installations have screened and exhibited widely, including in solo shows at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, The Viennale, Harvard Film Archives, The Jewish Museum, New York, VOLTA, San Francisco Cinematheque and in a retrospective at Sue Scott Gallery, New York. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The Guggenheim, Annenberg, Rockefeller, Creative Capital and Andrea Frank Foundations, The MacDowell Colony and The Sundance Institute Feature Filmmaker and Screenwriter Labs. A 2020 Fulbright Fellow, she’s currently working on a project about the late French actress Maria Schneider.