September 2021 in Tuscany
Audrey Lane
Audrey is a multidisciplinary artist located in NY. She graduated from NYU Tisch Drama ‘20 with a minor in Developmental Psychology. She has worked with The TEAM, Hangar Theatre, 600 Highwaymen, the Lake Lucille Chekhov Project, Playwrights Horizons, as well as produced and directed her own original plays and films. Audrey's work centers on finding the magic in day to day life and people. Her creations are attempted love letters and invitations to connect. Audrey is very excited to develop her script “Balloons Above Neptune” at the Nostos Screenwriting Retreat this fall.
Danielle Stratton
An Arizona native based in Los Angeles, Danielle was raised among the cacti and creosote in the dusty desert of Tucson. She is deeply inspired by her unique upbringing and an undying fascination with complicated relationships. Danielle holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. She is a 2021 fellow of “The Writers Lab” for women sponsored by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey. Danielle’s work has been named a finalist in numerous contests and fellowships including: Humanitas New Voices; Launch Pad Pilot; Austin Film Festival; Final Draft Big Break; Blue Cat Screenplay; Page Awards and WeScreenplay. The short film that she wrote and directed is currently in post-production with plans to make the rounds in next year’s festival circuit.
Eliana Victoria Alcouloumre
Los Angeles-based writer/director Eliana Victoria Alcouloumre chases stories that delve into the darkest reaches of the human psyche. She graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts with a double major in Film & Television Production and Cinema & Media Studies. Since graduating, Eliana has worked as a set production assistant and art department researcher for a myriad of features and TV shows.
Before transitioning to film, Eliana grew up in the world of musical theatre. Joining a professional theatre troupe in Laguna Beach, California, at the age of 10, she performed in dozens of shows over the years before realizing her true passion lay behind the scenes. She was also professionally trained in all styles of dance starting at a young age, and continues to work as a freelance choreographer. IN THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF stems from her experiences in the theatre and dance world.
Emma Cuba
Emma Cuba is a Cuban Swedish artist born and raised in Miami, FL. However, she embraces the “Ms. Worldwide” life approach and has lived and learned in Stockholm, Paris, and Boston. Her spontaneity, curiosity and hunger for life has resulted in countless “crazy” stories that fuel and inspire her to capture life through the lens.
Emma is a New World School of the Arts alumna and she earned her B.F.A in acting, playwriting, and directing for Theatre from Boston University in May 2020. Since then, Emma has pursued acting, writing and teaching in Stockholm and Miami. At the moment, she is working on her first short film “Mango City” in her beloved home of Miami to be produced Summer 2021 by an all female, mostly Latina team.
Josh "Grassy" Knoll
Grassy Knoll was born in Vallejo CA, birthplace of Mac Dre, E40 and the Bay Area “Hyphy Movement.” He works as a professional axe coach and aspires to be a professional axe thrower someday. He was raised by a single mother, Kim Knoll—a prolific improviser, author and educator in her own right, she taught him the magic of linguistics and narrative art at an early age. All the best in him, he owes to her.
After an ill-fated foray into the Culinary Arts, Grassy realized his talent and true passion was for storytelling. He went back to school in 2012 to complete his associate degree, transferring to UC Santa Cruz from Diablo Valley College. Grassy thrived in his return to the academic theater, graduating on time with a double concentration in Fiction Writing and Poetry Writing. He also served as editor-in-chief of the statewide literary magazine Matchbox Magazine and even successfully completed a self-imposed, ten-week vow of silence during his senior spring quarter to better internalize the art of brevity—known to some as “the soul of wit.”
Now a resident of the San Fernando Valley, Grassy is actively searching for the next opportunity or great idea. He’s currently working as an actor with his lifelong friends on the feature length independent film, Triad by Casey Jackson—as well as continuing to work on his own scripts, the comic book series Paranoid Ninja, the award-winning short film script What the Looking Glass Saw and the festival darling pilot script, Mana Leak.
Tanmaya Shekhar
Tanmaya Shekhar is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker focused on character-based narratives centered on the politics of love, longing and climate-change inaction. Having grown up in India, an incredibly unequal country, Tanmaya mostly writes about social issues from a whimsical and imaginative point of view. He is currently in development for an animated TV series The Grand Tammy, (second-rounder at Sundance Episodic Labs 2020), a live-action drama series Fragrance (Finalist at Wescreenplay TV Competition 2020), and an animated feature Fancy Rat (Semi Finalist at Screencraft Virtual Pitch Competition).
He’s produced a feature-length independent documentary Farmers for America (PBS, 2020) and worked as a location assistant/scout on The Plot Against America (David Simon, HBO), Love Life (Anna Kendrick, HBOMax) and Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, Focus Features). He is currently being mentored by a seasoned director at Walt Disney Animation, and the SVP at Annapurna Television.
Kevin Treacy
Born and raised in Belfast, Kevin studied politics and economics in France before switching paths to become a cinematographer. He has shot a wide range of feature films, documentaries and tv programmes, as well as dozens of TV and online commercials in Ireland, the UK and the United States. He won Best Cinematography in a Short at the Galway Film Fleadh 2018 and won Gold for Cinematography in a Short at the Kinsale Shark Awards 2018.
He has also written, directed and produced multiple short films and TV Pilots, including "Starz" starring Gerry McSorely which aired on BBC 1 NI in 2016. In 2018 he produced the feature film "Dive" which went from script to national cinema release in Ireland in just 66 days.
He founded Promenade Post Production in 2016, a business that combines all aspects of film post-production with cinematography services and camera rental to provide an end-to-end technical solution for filmmakers.
He took a break from filmmaking in 2019 to found Money Jar (https://moneyjar.ie/), a digital bank that helps people better manage their money. In his role as CEO, Kevin drove an experienced and diverse team of experts from banking, technology, human rights, and behavioural psychology to deliver an ambitious solution with ethics at its core.
Kevin returned to cinematography full time in late 2021 and is currently working on a feature script that he hopes to direct in 2022.
Richard Weston
Richard is a filmmaker and screenwriter based in Liverpool. He has worked on numerous features and shorts, including the Wilfred Owen biopic The Burying Party for which he won Best Narrative Feature at the New Renaissance Film Festival in London and Best Picture at the New York Film Awards. He has worked as both a guest lecturer and director at East 15 Acting School, Identity School of Acting and John Moores University and is festival director for the Liverpool Underground Film Festival. His passion for both transgressive and independent cinema is a major part of his current screenwriting projects.
Tania Notaro
Tania Notaro is an actor and an emerging screenwriter from Dublin. She is known for her roles in AMC’s Into The Badlands, CBS’ Evidence of Evil and Mark O’Connor’s Cardboard Gangsters. She is a graduate of Bow Street Actors Academy, The Gaiety School of Acting and Momentum Studios where she studied Meisner. During her time as an actor, she became disappointed with the lack of diverse roles for working-class women in film and how they were being portrayed, so wanted to create her own. She recently graduated with a 1st class Master's Degree in Screenwriting for Film & TV from The National film school, IADT and Warner Brothers offered her a scholarship to do so. In 2020 she was inaugurated into the Warner Brothers creative talent team as a one to watch.
Her first short film Boxed won her a scholarship to study under legendary director John Boorman at the Irish Film School in 2019, making her the first female writer to win this award. She is the winner of The Ronan Phelan Writer Script award at IndieCork 2019 and this year she was one of the 25 mentees selected for Screen Skills Ireland's mentorship programme for film professionals. She is hoping to make socially conscious films from a female perspective which she believes is greatly needed.
Tina Love
Tina Love does some combination of producing, writing, directing, shooting and editing in various capacities for local clients in Santa Barbara, CA. Her self-produced works have screened at many film-festivals. Some of her shorts are licensed to ShortsTV and other channels. Tina is currently writing some content where the individual must step into the courage of his or her convictions and learn to trust their instincts in navigating an uncooperative or dangerous world. She has been working freelance in this business since attending Brooks Institute film school back in 2004. A list of some of her work can be found at on IMDB. Tina also dances and teaches flamenco.
Vaughn Roste
Vaughn Roste has recently optioned his feature screenplay, ORADOUR, which is currently in pre-production. His award-winning short FIREFIGHTER won the grand prize - production - in the 2020 MP3 screenwriting contest, and is currently in post. He has won 57 screenplay awards to date. He is also currently one of the highest-rated script reviewers on Coverfly. He is a published author of books, plays, poems, peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, program notes for CD liners and Carnegie Hall, and a doctoral dissertation. His book, The Xenophobe’s Guide to the Canadians was published by Oval Books in England (2003-8th edition, revised, 2016).