July 24th, 2019

Featured Filmmakers Salon
A presentation of works by:
Dina Fiasconaro
Malado Francine Baldwin
Dakota Gearhart
July 24th - Oblomov - 8:30 pm - Free event 
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Dina Fiasconaro is a screenwriter and film director, recently named a finalist for the 2018 Baker Artist Award. Her feature documentary, Moms and Meds: Navigating Pregnancy and Psychiatric Medication, was released in 2016, and her short film, Commercial for the Queen of Meatloaf, has screened at over 20 film festivals. Dina recently completed a feature adaptation of the novella Beneath the Remains, and an original feature narrative script, Days in the Wake, as a resident at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in California, Stowe Story Labs fellow in Vermont and Saul Zaentz Innovation Lab screenplay fellow. Her short films have screened at a variety of venues and film festivals, including the Baltimore Museum of Art. Dina has an MFA in directing from Columbia University, and a BS in TV, Radio and Film from Syracuse University. She is an Associate Professor of Film and Moving Image at Stevenson University, and is a member of Film Fatales and the Baltimore Women’s Media Alliance, working towards gender parity in the film industry.
Artist Statement:
I have always considered myself a keen observer of conversation, character, the absurd, the bizarre, the interesting. I find myself inadvertently honing in on people’s conversations, the way they dress and act, the way a certain environment looks or feels, and these moments and observations inevitably make their way into my screenplays and films.
Much of my early work has been informed by family stories and family members; a skeleton in my cousin’s closet, my grandmother’s immigrant experience, or her finding love again at ninety. My recent work, both documentary and narrative, focuses on stories of women, such as mothers struggling with mental illness, or unusual twin sisters, or a bored housewife and her meatloaf come to life, or my grandmother’s hair and its relationship to her identity and our family. I am currently transitioning into feature film directing with two projects. Days in the Wake is based on the true story of a man who, using a loophole in the Safe Haven law, abandons his nine children at a hospital after his wife dies in childbirth. In his wake, his oldest daughter embarks on a quest to find her siblings, and get answers to his seemingly unconscionable actions. Beneath the Remains is a coming-of-age mystery about teenage metalhead Gabby and the search for her older sister Steph, who has disappeared in the humid summer of their marshland home. Both of these films continue to explore common themes of my work related to girl and womanhood, marginalization and familial relationships.
www.dinafiasconaro.com
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Malado Francine Baldwin is an American multi-media artist based in Los Angeles, known for her work in text and image. As a former riot grrrl and a feminist, her interest in film lies in reversing the gaze and ownership of the object of beauty.
Film screenings include the Femmes Video Festival @Fair Play Miami FL, Video Konstfestival @Magasinet Falun, Sweden, Brooklyn Fireproof, Codex Dynamic Brooklyn, The Situation Room LA, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Her early film work was acquired as a part of Miranda July's feminist film archive Joanie4Jackie at the J. Paul Getty Research Institute and Bard College. She is the recipient of the Buckingham Prize for music in art and the LCU Foundation grant for women. She is a founder of the Association of Hysteric Curators and member of the former Berlin Collective. Recently events include happenings for the Maiden LA Biennale and the Women’s Center for Creative Work.
Artist Statement:
As an artist, my goal is to weave new narratives of cultural inheritance. As a former riot grrrl and always a feminist, my interest in film lies in reversing the gaze and ownership of the object of beauty. Film lies at the intersection of life: what we observe, who we love and what we privilege in filming it. In my films, I work to create an alternative world in which you enter and want to linger. Everything is accounted for: the camera angles, the environment around the actors; the mood and lighting... each shot is planned and felt- in order to create this unique and immersive experience.
http://maladofrancine.com
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Dakota Gearhart is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn who examines the built environment and how it is perceived through technology and mythology. Her work has been exhibited at The Bronx Museum of Art (NY), Tacoma Art Museum (WA), Henry Art Gallery (WA), Equity Gallery (NY), Westbeth Gallery (NY), Taiyuan Normal University (CH), and Vulpes Vulpes (UK). Gearhart has received grants from the Puffin Foundation, Artist Trust, NEA Foundation, and Seattle’s 4Culture Program. Gearhart has attended artist residencies at The Queens Museum Studio Program (NY), NARS Foundation (NY), Wassaic Project (NY), Recology (WA), and Residency Unlimited (NY). She is a graduate of Florida State University and received her MFA in 2013 from the University of Washington. Currently, she is a Digital Media Fellow with BRIC, the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, NY.
Artist Statement:
My work spans performance, video, sound, text, sculpture, collage, and room-sized multimedia installations. I use found materials I collect at places like microbiology labs, spam folders, and industrial dumps. Reorganized according to science-fiction and anti-commercial aesthetics, these materials function to depict what a multi-species and non-binary world view might look like. With this intention, I bundle together my interests in perception, biology, queerness, the role of technology and intimacy, humor, and the importance of world-building to articulate more creative and less oppressive futures.
www.dakotagearhart.com