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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 4 May 2017
Young director makes a bit

of history with film debut

JOHN CARUCCI wanted Messina to star in and she’s grateful she gets
Associated Press “Blame” but only had his the chance to do it right.
NEW YORK (AP) — Over- wife’s email. “As an actor, I read a lot
coming the hurdle of being “I had it from a friend of a of the scripts that are writ-
a woman director in Holly- friend of a friend. He got ten for young women, and
wood is tough enough, but my letter and he called me I can attest firsthand that
trying to do it a few years in three days. The rest is his- we need better films being
removed from high school tory,” Shephard said. written about teenage girls.
is an even more daunting Shephard stars in her own I think that young women
In this April 21, 2017 file photo, Quinn Shephard attends the Cha- task. film as an outcast in high are so incredibly complex,
nel Tribeca Film Festival Women’s Filmmaker Luncheon in New So it was to be expected school, also named Abigail, and important, and I think
York. that Quinn Shephard — just who escapes by immersing that my film pokes fun at
Associated Press 22 years old — was filled herself in literature. She is a lot of the stereotypes,
with nervous energy as she cast by the school’s new and we turn them on their
prepared to screen her fea- drama teacher, played by head,” Shephard. “I strive
ture film debut, “Blame,” Messina, in Arthur Miller’s to bring honesty to these
at a major film festival pre- “The Crucible”; the two be- characters.”
miere amid cameras, lights come intimate, mirroring A recent report by the
and celebrities recently. Miller’s play on the Salem Media, Diversity & Social
“It’s like when you’re go- witch hunts. Change Initiative at USC
ing up on a roller coaster, “The character is very per- Annenberg found that of
and you chose to be on it,” sonal, because I also used the 1,000 top-grossing films
Shephard said last week. to latch on to characters released in the last de-
“You’re excited that you’re from literature ... as a way cade, only 4 percent were
on it, but you’re also ter- to get through going to directed by women
rified. That’s kind of how I a small suburban school While “Blame” debuted to
feel.” where I didn’t feel like I fit mixed reviews, Shephard
Shephard’s journey to the in, and I didn’t feel like I had supporters, including
Tribeca Film Festival — was on the same page as Tribeca Film Festival co-
where she became the everyone else,” she said. “I founder Jane Rosenthal.
youngest woman direc- felt like I was in a different She says the intent of the
tor to debut a feature film, world. I always wanted to festival has always been
according to organizers — escape that, and literature about discovery, and
was untraditional. She start- was a big way that I was younger filmmakers are a
ed writing the film when able to do that. In turn, my big part of the equation.
she was 15, put college on film became my ultimate “We screened ‘Guy and
hold to work on her movie, way of channeling my en- Madeline on a Park Bench’
and used money set aside ergy into doing something by a filmmaker named Da-
for college to fund her film. better.” mien Chazelle a number of
Even casting one of her Shephard feels that now, years ago,” Rosenthal said,
main stars, Chris Messina, more than ever, it’s impor- of this year’s Oscar-winning
took a circuitous route. She tant to tell women’s stories, director of “La La Land.”q

Review: ‘The Mask of Sanity’

is a suspenseful story

BRUCE DESILVA any hint that he has a mo-
Associated Press tive for murder, he allows
Dr. Jeremy Balint is a man the affair to continue for
who has it all. He’s a re- months.
spected community lead- He studies murder cases,
er, a cardiologist with a both real and fictional, to
thriving practice and a learn how to avoid mis-
family man with a beautiful takes, always careful to
wife and two lovely young leave no trace that could
daughters. But when he lead back to him.
discovers that his wife is Finally, he decides that the
having an affair with one best way to avoid being
of his colleagues, he be- caught is to make it ap-
gins methodically planning pear that the murder he is
to take the man’s life. planning is just one in a se-
Balint pretends the col- ries of random attacks by This book cover image re-
league is his best friend a deranged serial killer — leased by The Permanent
and feigns ignorance of which means he has to kill Press shows “The Mask of San-
his wife’s infidelity. To avoid six or seven times.q ity,” by Jacob M. Appel. As-
sociated Press