Elisabeth Subrin
Brooklyn, NY
Elisabeth Subrin is a New York-based filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist who creates conceptually driven projects in film, video, photography and installation. Working across experimental and narrative forms, her projects seek intersections between history and subjectivity, investigating the nature and poetics of psychological “disorder,” the legacy of feminism, and the impact of recent social and political history on contemporary life and consciousness. Her films, videos and installations have exhibited widely, including at The New York Film Festival, The Rotterdam International Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, The Cinematheque Francaise, The Vienna Viennale, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Biennial, MoMA/PS1’s Greater New York 2010, The Mattress Factory, The Center for Curatorial Studies, The Walker Art Center. Subrin has had solo projects and screenings at The Jewish Museum, VOLTA NY, The ICA Philadelphia, and a critically acclaimed 2010 retrospective at Sue Scott Gallery. She’s received awards from The LA Film Critic’s Association, The New England Film Festival, the USA Film Festival and Black Maria Film Festival. Her film Shulie was selected for the 2012 Sight & Sound critic’s poll for ”Greatest Films Ever.” A Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Directing Fellow, she’s also received grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Annenberg Foundations and The MacDowell Colony. She’s an Associate Professor in Film and Media Arts at Temple University and lives in Brooklyn.
From the Journal
A Woman, A Part
Elisabeth Subrin is a New York-based filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist who creates conceptually driven projects in film, video, photography and installation.
Artist BioA Woman, A Part marks the feature-length narrative debut of filmmaker and artist Elisabeth Subrin. The film is a critique of how women are portrayed in media, the ways in which personal relationships intertwine with and shape the creative process, and the difficulty of change—all set against a gentrifying New York City. The main character, Anna, is a woman at a crossroads: as a successful television actress on a hit network show in Los Angeles, she has played the same brittle "career woman" part for years. After a particularly egregious confrontation on set, Anna reveals to her manager Leslie that she wants to quit acting—even though leaving her show would result in a huge lawsuit and ruin her career. She impulsively flies to New York in an attempt to return to the past life she left behind and reinvent herself. She reconnects with lapsed friends from her '90s experimental theater troupe that she abandoned for Hollywood who are now struggling to survive in the rapidly gentrifying city. As Anna's arrival tears open old wounds, all three are forced to reckon with their pasts and uncertain futures.
From the Journal
We spoke to artist & filmmaker Elisabeth Subrin about the premiere of her Creative Capital project, “A Woman, A Part” which screens at IFC Center March 22-30