AWARD-WINNING
FILMMAKER ROLLA SELBAK
DEBUTS BRAND NEW
ONLINE WEB SERIES “GRRL’S GUIDE TO FILMMAKING”.
LOS ANGELES, CA - Award-winning out filmmaker Rolla
Selbak is releasing a new online “interview” series called "Grrl's
Guide To Filmmaking”, in which she shares her personal Hollywood vlogs as
she visits some of the most prominent lesbian filmmakers making it happen
today.
Grrl's Guide To Filmmaking offers an exclusive glimpse behind the
scenes, showing the magic, behind the magic.
Selbak sneaks us into the Paramount writers room with Faith Soloway,
writer on the breakthrough Amazon series Transparent; stumbles into Cathy
DeBuono's backyard; gets the juicy details from Guinevere Turner and how she
came up with the title "The L Word", and much....much more.
Season One kicks off on August 10th with episode
one featuring an up close and personal interview with Faith Soloway, which will
stream on www.tellofilms.com
Selbak is an award winning filmmaker
who is part of the San Francisco Women's Film Institute Leadership council, and
is responsible for creating and producing the S.F International Women's On-line
Film Festival. She's queer, an Arab-American and a woman.
But that hasn’t stopped the
self-taught auteur from writing, directing and producing films that matter to
her.
We all know her as the mastermind
behind the web series sensation “Kiss Her I’m Famous” starring Tracy
Ryerson and Ilea Matthews which satirizes
the booming business of the sex tape madness, and how celebrity wannabes
utilizes their home movies as a ticket to greater stardom and a
major payday. But Selbak carries a filmmaking dossier that may very well
rival some of the most prominent out female filmmakers in the industry.
Selbak's impressive credits include
writing and directing the internationally acclaimed feature film "Three
Veils”, starring Sheetal Sheth (Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World, I
Can’t Think Straight), Mercedes Masohn (666 Park Ave), and featuring Eric Avari
(Heros, The Mummy). The film confronts delicate subject matters such as
arranged marriage, homosexuality, and love within the Muslim-American
subculture, and portrays the leading female characters as human beings first, women
second, and their cultural surroundings as veils that dictate how much of their
inner-selves are revealed.
With "Three Veils", Rolla
Selbak, who grew up in the Middle East and chafed under the strict social
structure of a Muslim family, delivered a snapshot of her feelings about how
women's rights are trampled under in her otherwise rich and vibrant culture.
The feature film won Best Screenplay at San Diego LGBT International
2012; Best LGBT Film at the New York City International Film Festival 2011; Jury
Award Best Film at S.F Women's International 2011; Jury Award Best Female
Feature at the Long Island LGBT Film Fest 2011; and the Rainbow Award at
the Honolulu LGBT Film Fest 2011, among other.
Her previous feature, “Making Maya”,
has found a successful niche within the independent film world, and has been
screened at film festivals and universities nation-wide. She was
announced a Winner of the LinkTV’s One Nation Many Voices film competition in
2008 for her documentary “Green Blue Sea”, profiling a young, Palestinian scuba
diver, and his profound respect for the ocean.
She is known to delve into subject
matters that bear distinctively bold, thought-provoking and compelling
qualities. It’s no surprise this established filmmaker/Palestinian native has
been invited to speak at multiple panels on independent filmmaking and women in
the arts, and was a grant panelist for the 2008 Regional Arts & Culture
Council of Oregon. Her other notable achievements include scoring and
writing music for her films, and being a recipient of the inaugural Women’s
Vision Film grant for her screenwriting, awarded by the Faerie Godmother Fund.
EPISODE
GUIDE
EP1 - Faith Soloway - 8/10
EP2 - Cathy DeBuono - 8/17
EP3 - Cathryn Hayes - 8/24
EP4 - Heather de Michele & Gretchen
Michelfeld - 8/31
EP5 - Guinevere Turner -
9/7