CREATIVE TEAM
Easmanie Michel
Writer/Director/Producer
Easmanie Michel has worked continuously in the film and television industry since 2004. She currently curates the Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories Series for the nonprofit organization called New York Women in Film & Television.
Michel work on films include Transporter, Hoot and Miami Vice. Television projects include Miami Ink and Burn Notice. Michel has produced and directed several short films and she is working on her debut feature film titled Caroline's Wedding.
Her script for Caroline's Wedding was a finalist for the New York University Fusion Film Festival and it was also one of the scripts selected to participate in the Women at Sundance Financing and Strategy Intensive in 2016. In February of 2018 the script was the Grand Prize Winner of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest. Michel has a Master's Degree in Cinema Studies from New York University.
Avril Z. Speaks
Producer
Avril Speaks has over twenty years of experience as a filmmaker to include credits as a producer, writer, director and editor. Most recently, she was the producer of Jinn, which recently had its world premiere at SXSW 2018 in Narrative Competition and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing.
Seeing a need for a broader selection of quality films, Avril's goal is to diversify the film market by creating unique films, and by educating and empowering aspiring filmmakers; thereby creating a movement consisting of media that represents the true, multi-dimensional qualities of people and speaks to the world. Committed to supporting women and filmmakers of color who tackle themes of family, community, social justice, and spirituality, Avril continues to work on interesting projects within film and television. She was an Associate Producer on the TNT docu-series American Race, and is currently one of the producers for the upcoming feature film, Hosea. She is also in development on the IFP-supported South African feature film, African America, in addition to Caroline's Wedding. Avril is a Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow for the project Noor, and she most recently worked as a production manager for Scripted Programming at BET Networks.
Avril earned her M.F.A. in Film Directing from Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City, has directed two feature films, and was a former professor at Howard University prior to moving to Los Angeles to focus primarily on producing and directing.
Edwidge Danticat
Author
Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous award-winning books, including Brother, I'm Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and a National Book Award finalist. Breath, Eyes, Memory was an Oprah Book Club selection. The collection Krik? Krak! which contains the short story that Caroline's Wedding is based on was also a finalist for the National Book Award. She writes for the New Yorker and other publications on topics related to Haiti and Haitian-American culture and social issues.
Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When she was two, her father, Andre, immigrated to New York. Two years later, her mother, Rose, joined him, leaving Edwidge and her brother to stay with her aunt and uncle for several years. At 12, she joined her family in Brooklyn and from that point on, began writing about the emotional and psychological challenges facing immigrants.
Danticat attended Barnard College, where she received a BA in French literature. In 1993, she received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brown University. In 2009, Danticat was awarded a MAcArthur Fellowship.
Danticat, who lives in Miami, is married and has two daughters.
Please watch Easmanie Michel's interview with Ms. Danticat HERE.
CONTACT
for more information
EMAIL: easmanie.michel@gmail.com
PHONE: 954-649-2115