Director Biography – Jane Stephens Rosenthal (THE HIDEAWAY)

A poet and an actor, Jane Stephens Rosenthal grew up in Los Angeles and immersed in film. She moved towards directing after working with artistic director Yuval Sharon while writing the acclaimed LA opera “Hopscotch.” Writing her first short film, she realized that if she wanted to see/feel the story she had written as an actor the way she wrote/felt it, she was going to have to direct it herself. And she fell in love. Her directorial debut NO ONE EVER SAID premiered at the Independent Filmmakers Showcase, played in the LA International Shorts Festival, HollyShorts and will be online in the Unlonely Film Festival. She graduated from the American Film Institute in the directing program.

Director Statement

We don’t often enough see a young woman’s experience of what it is like being in-between childhood and adulthood on the screen. How sharp that edge is, how much longing there is and how much looking we do to see how to behave, where to fit in, and how much we judge what is around us in trying to make sense of it.

For me, being a filmmaker is about putting these in between moments on the screen. Digging into the complexity of emotions and the confusion of them. Film has so often been a salve for me, a place to turn to when I have felt alone, growing up, and not feeling a part of, that so much of my desire as a filmmaker comes from a place of wanting to give a mirror to those who don’t have it and to say I see you, I’ve felt that, Yes, me too.

So often when I look back at my growing up I wished there had been someone to be there to tell me that all my desire and fear and longing was okay, and that it was okay to become a woman and there was nothing to be scared of, even though it is very scary to become a woman, there is something empowering about it. Ultimately, I wanted to make a film about what it is like to see and be seen. That a parent is also a human, and the incredible moment when a child realizes that and the acceptance and change that can occur in a relationship when this is realized, for both parent and child.

I think it is an incredible gift to be human, and to be able to grow and change and I think the Hideaway is a testament to that discovery and the power one has as a woman and the resilience we all have to participate in this world.

By femalefilmfestival

The irony of this festival is that its goal is to not be around in 5 years time. To eventually not be relevant because there is zero need to have a festival geared for female talent and female stories because the stories presented in Hollywood and around the world are a balanced showcase of the human experience from both sexes. Our goal is to achieve a lot of success and then fold into oblivion simply because there is no need for this festival. This festival was created by the FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival as a simple reaction to a strong need to showcase female talent from around the world in a more profound way. When putting together the weekly festival, the administration noticed a lack of a female presence in the stories being shown at the festival. A classic example and analogy to the frustration is how the festival noticed that even the smaller roles in a screenplay were written for a man to play. There was zero reason for this in many stories. How a police officer, or a political campaign manager, for example with 3-4 lines in a screenplay was a "HE" character. Why? And these are the screenplays written by the winners! The talented one who have obtained agents and have began/beginning their careers as a writer.

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