IFH 296: The State of Indie Film for Women with Jen McGowan

Today on the show we have writer​/director Jen McGowan on the show. We discuss the state of women directors in Indie FIlm, her new film Rust Creek and what it is really like to be a female director, from her perspective in today's world.

Jen McGowan is a director based in Los Angeles. Her first feature KELLY & CAL (Juliette Lewis & Cybill Shepherd) premiered at SXSW where she won the Gamechanger Award. The film was released theatrically by IFC Films to rave reviews. McGowan got her start with award-winning short films, CONFESSIONS OF A LATE BLOOMER and TOUCH, both of which played at over a hundred festivals worldwide. TOUCH qualified for the Oscar when it won the Florida Film Festival.

McGowan studied directing in the MFA program at USC where she was honored with a scholarship from Women in Film and a grant from The Caucus Foundation. She received her BFA in Acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, studying under David Mamet, Bill Macy & Sam Shepard at the Atlantic Theatre. She is the creator of filmpowered.com, an international skill-sharing, networking & jobs resource for professional women in film and television.

With nearly 2,500 active members, Film Powered was named Best in LA by LA Weekly, is part of the Sundance Women’s Initiative Resource and was featured in Forbes. A Film Independent Fellow, a finalist for the Clint Eastwood Filmmakers Award, recipient of the AWD Breakout Award for Excellence in Directing and one of Vulture’s Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring, she was named one of 50 Women Who Will Change the World in Media & Entertainment by the Take the Lead Foundation.

The tv series she created, Angelica, about the last remaining abortion clinic in a small Midwest town was one of twelve series selected from 4,000 submissions and the only American project for the MIPTV In Development program at Cannes 2018. McGowan’s second feature film, the survival thriller, RUST CREEK, is being released in theaters January 2019 by IFC Midnight.

Enjoy my eye-opening conversation about the state of women directors in indie film with Jen McGowan.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.