Laurel Hunter
Laurel Hunter (S.A.G.) is a filmmaker, writer, director and actor based
in San Francisco, California. Her first feature film, SOMETHING BETTER,
has screened at various film festivals and venues across the United States,
including the American Film Institute in Los Angeles (2002), The East
Village Cinemas in New York City with the New York International Film
and Video Festival (2003), The Breckenridge Film Festival in Colorado
(2004) and the Golden Film Festival (2004), who honored her work with
Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Actress (Kim Ataide) awards. SOMETHING
BETTER also received a Best of Festival Award from the Berkeley Film and
Video festival (2003). Hunter's second film, THE HIGHWAY HOME, is currently
in post-production, due for completion by August (2007).
Ms. Hunter received her degree in Playwriting from San Francisco State
University (1998) and is the recipient of multiple playwriting awards,
including a Lawrence and Lee Playwriting Award, Highsmith Playwriting
Award, and was the winner of the Bay Area Women's Playwriting Competition.
Her fiction and non fiction have appeared in notable publications such
as New Woman Magazine and the Berkeley Fiction Review, and she has appeared
as a guest author at the Berkeley Barnes and Noble and Modern Times Books
in San Francisco. Her short story DOG HOUSE received honorable mention
in the 12th Edition New Millennium Writing Awards.
Hunter has directed numerous theatre productions on the East and West
coasts, including JP Allen's one man show, GAMBLING at the Victory Theatre
in Burbank, which received critical acclaim in the Los Angeles Times and
the L.A. Weekly, and has since been made into a feature film, winning
Best Feature at the Telluride Independent Film Festival (2005). Her theatrical
collaboration with New York based actor, Bill Smartt (AUNT JACK) recently
ran for three weeks at the 78th Street Theatre in New York City, after
developing it with Smartt at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco, and premiering
at the Theatre Rhinoceros Studio Theatre, also in San Francisco.
As an actor, Hunter has trained at the University of Colorado where she
received critical acclaim for her role as Daisy in THE ADDING MACHINE.
She has also trained at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, and with numerous
acting coaches. Other stage credits include Agnes in AGNES OF GOD at the
Denver Center for the Performing Arts Acting Workshop, Lunatic in ANYONE
CAN WHISTLE, 9th Street Park Avenue Theatre, Denver; Leah in TORNADO ULTRA,
Changing Scene Theatre, Denver; Janice in THE CASINO; Canadian Fringe
Festival Tour - Pacific Theater (Edmonton, Alberta and Vancouver, British
Columbia); Jane in THE DISAPPEARING, New City Theatre, Seattle; numerous
Roles in the PLAYGROUND STAGED READING SERIES, San Francisco, Pascuala
in FUENTE OVEJUNA, Studio Theatre, San Francisco. Her film credits include
a principal role as Mary in the award winning independent film SOMETHING
BETTER, and many minor and extra roles in films such as SOUL MAN, A SMILE
LIKE YOURS, DESPERATE MEASURES, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, ED TV and Walt Disney's
TOTALLY MINNIE.
Hunter is the founding member of Blu
Fly Press and Productions, San Francisco, and World Clique Cinema
with award winning filmmaker, Shady Srour of Nazareth. Hunter and Srour
are currently in pre-production for their upcoming film, tentatively titled,
THE DARK OF NIGHT.