Women Filmmaker Residency Program

As part of the 100-year tradition of Provincetown as America’s oldest art colony, the Women’s Residency Program allows established women-identifying filmmakers from around the world who have had films in PIFF the opportunity to work in Provincetown during the off-season alongside other artists and writers who use the solitude of the outer Cape Cod area as inspiration for their work.

The program offers one or two-week residencies in Provincetown that includes a small travel stipend, lodging, and roundtrip travel from Boston to Provincetown. Residents can have uninterrupted time to work on any current project or choose to engage with the vibrant community of Provincetown for the exchange of ideas, skills, and experiences. Potential applicants are nominated by a panel of film industry professionals.

For the three filmmakers who made up the inaugural class of the Gabrielle A. Hanna Provincetown Film Institute’s residency program for women filmmakers this past spring, the experience produced tangible results as well as those that can’t be measured but are just as important to artists. – Loren King, Provincetown Banner

PAST RESIDENTS:

A. SAYEEDA MORENO

A. Sayeeda Moreno is a director and screenwriter whose award-winning short films and screenplays are nourished by the mythology of the NYC metropolis where she was born, and the exhilarating cast of characters that filtered through her bohemian home. She documents and filters this World through her own body and a body of work that is character-driven, utilizing genre to illuminate our human experiences: how we survive, what is in opposition to us, what our mind grapples with, and how we love. Sayeeda is a Film Independent, Sundance Women in Finance, and Tribeca All Access Fellow and earned her MFA in Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as a dean’s fellow. She is developing her feature film ‘OUT IN THE DUNES’ and has been an Assistant Professor in Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College since 2018.

ALICE WU

A former computer scientist, Alice Wu designed software for Microsoft before leaving the tech world to become a filmmaker. Primarily a writer-director, she is known for humanistic comedies, often featuring queer or immigrant characters caught in impossible circumstances. Her debut feature, Saving Face, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film garnered several festival accolades, a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Film Limited Release, and a Breakthrough Director nomination at the Gotham Independent Film Awards. Alice’s second film, The Half of It, won the top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, before it was released on Netflix in 2020. The script was a 2018 selection for the prestigious Black List, and was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. She has written projects for Sony, Paramount, DreamWorks Animation, and Netflix. When she is not writing or directing, Alice can often be found hanging out with other cranky old lesbians, teaching and performing long-form improv or perfecting her scone recipe.

AMBER FARES

Amber Fares is an award-winning documentary director. producer and cinematographer. Her recent projects include RECKONING WITH LAUGHTER (The New Yorker 2021), CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS (Netflix 2021), BOYCOTT (DocNYC 2021), AND SHE COULD BE NEXT (PBS 2020), AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC (National Geographic 2018), TRANSPARENT (Amazon 2017), and THE JUDGE (Peabody Award/PBS 2017). She also Directed and Produced Sundance-supported SPEED SISTERS (Netflix 2015). Amber’s films have won numerous awards and have played in film festivals around the world, including TIFF, Sheffield, Hot Docs, IDFA, CPH: Dox, and Doc NYC. Amber was a 2019 Sundance Momentum Fellow, 2014 Sundance Catalyst participant, 2014 Sundance Institute Edit and Story Lab, and 2012 Sundance fellowship.

RUTH LEITMAN

Ruth Leitman has a BFA in Film and Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Through her company Ruthless Films, Ruth Leitman has directed six feature documentaries. Her films focus on women and those whose lives have faced a lack of opportunity, but who are survivors. Her work has received funding from Rockefeller Foundation, TriBeCa Film Institute, Paul Robeson Fund, Illinois Humanities Council, and Fledgling Fund. In 2020 she was awarded the 2020 City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Esteemed Artist in Film and Media. Her Southern Gothic film ALMA (1998) won the Documentary Feature Jury Prize at the Hamptons Film Festival, and screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, SXSW, Director’s Guild of America, and the Whitney Biennial. Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs, her film LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE (2005) won the Documentary Storytelling Prize at Nantucket Film Festival, was released theatrically, and was broadcast on SHOWTIME. 

RANI DEIGHE CROWE

Rani Deighe Crowe is a writer, director, actor, filmmaker, teacher, and collaborative interdisciplinary artist. Rani’s short films, BEAUTIFUL EYES, TEXTING: A LOVE STORY, and HEATHER HAS FOUR MOMS have screened at festivals around the world. Her feature screenplay, THE THREE QUARTERS, won Honorable Mention at the Women’s Independent Film Festival. She collaborated on a dance/theater creation in French and English, Les Jeux D’Amour, performed at the Aronoff Center as part of Cincinnati Contemporary Dance Theater’s Choreographers Without Companies show. She collaborated with the Johnstone New Music Foundation and members of the Columbus Symphony on a dance/theater/music production of the Stravinsky/Kurt Vonnegut version of A Soldier’s Tale. Her six-volume multi-media installation of The Spoon River Anthology was part of Migiwa Orimo’s Telephone Booth Project, a finalist for the International Public Art Award. Her solo performance work includes her Julia Child site-specific comic character, and the multimedia The New Woman Gets A Room of Her Own: a Performance Lecture with Hats. Rani holds a BA in Theater/Dance from Antioch College and an MFA in Film from Ohio University. She currently is an Assistant Professor at Ball State University.

EMILY HUBLEY

Emily Hubley has been making short animated films for decades. Her feature, THE TOE TACTIC was developed at the Sundance Film Labs and premiered theatrically at the Museum of Modern Art. Her newest short, BRAINWORM BILLY, was made with her son, Max Rosenthal, and screened at the Montclair and Provincetown Film Festivals and at BAM. Other recent projects include DEAR TRUMP VOTER, an online segment for Robert Reich/Inequality Media, and animation for documentaries, Love and Stuff, and Motian in Motion. She has provided animation for many other films including BLUE VINYL, DANNY SAYS, and HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. A daughter of pioneer animators Faith and John Hubley, Emily worked on Faith’s films at The Hubley Studio, Inc. from 1977 to 2001. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film and she has been an AMPAS member since 2012.

WIEBKE VON CAROLSFELD

Montreal-based, Wiebke von Carolsfeld made her directorial debut with the critically acclaimed MARION BRIDGE (starring Molly Parker and introducing Elliot Page). The film played at festivals around the world (competition in Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Sydney, Pusan etc), winning many awards including Best First Feature at TIFF and Sudbury, and a nomination for Best Direction from the DGC. Since, Wiebke wrote and directed the documentary WALK WITH US as well as STAY, a Canadian/Irish co-production, starring Taylor Schilling, Aidan Quinn, and Barry Keoghan. The film premiered at TIFF, and garnered a Best Direction Award from the Emerge Film Festival before opening theatrically both in the US and Canada. Her most recent feature, THE SAVER, received many nominations (CSA, DGC, WGC), winning Best Screenplay from the Chlotrudis Society in Boston, Best Film at the Greenbay Festival, Best Actress and Supporting Actor at the AIFF. The film was distributed both in the US and Canada. During her recent residency with the Provincetown Film Society, Wiebke developed her new feature: THE LAST STRAW.

MICHELLE BOYANER

Michelle Boyaner is an award-winning Filmmaker whose films include the Documentary features, PACKED IN A TRUNK: THE LOST ART OF EDITH LAKE WILKINSON and A FINISHED LIFE: THE GOODBYE AND NO REGRETS TOUR; Documentary short films HI, YOU’VE REACHED DAVE’S APARTMENT, and TINA PAULINA: LIVING ON HOPE STREET and the narrative shorts, YOU’RE STILL YOUNG and THE BEDWETTER. Prior to her film work, Michelle wrote a popular blog, “Live at Lakeridge”, and a book of personal essays chronicling her beloved grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s, “Oh, For God’s Sake Whisper It”.  Michelle is currently at work on the Documentary feature, IT’S NOT A BURDEN: THE HUMOR AND HEARTACHE OF RAISING ELDERLY PARENTS. She’s also at work on a scripted web series about growing up in the 1970’s in a Southern California suburb, as well as several other new media projects.

SHELLI AINSWORTH

Writer/director Shelli Ainsworth is a Minneapolis-based artist whose work in experimental theater and film has earned her national recognition. Her first feature film, STAY THEN GO, has been an official selection in film festivals across the country, as well as the official selection for the Southern Circuit, a highly-regarded touring program. For STAY THEN GO, Ms. Ainsworth received the “Pioneering Women in Screenwriting” award from the Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival.

JENNIE LIVINGSTON

Jennie Livingston is a groundbreaking filmmaker, known for her thoughtful exploration of identity, class, race, death, sex, and gender. Her films include PARIS IS BURNING, WHO’S THE TOP?, and THROUGH THE ICE. In 2015, PARIS IS BURNING received the Cinema Eye Honors Legacy Award and was honored during the Sundance Collection screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Livingston lives in Brooklyn, NY, and was educated at Yale University.

STACIE PASSON

Stacie Passon is an American film director and screenwriter, whose debut film CONCUSSION premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and won a Teddy Award Jury Prize as an outstanding film about LGBT themes at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. The film garnered two Gotham Nominations, a Spirit Award nomination for Best First Film, and won a 2014 GLADD Media award. Passon is an adjunct professor at New York University and Tisch School of the Arts.