March 2004

Rick Delaup, Filmmaker

“The great thing about living and working in New Orleans is that the city is so rich with subject matter, for any artist,” says Rick Delaup, a native of New Orleans who studied film at Chicago’s Columbia College but returned to the Crescent City to produce documentary videos. “It's a visually exciting city. In my opinion, it’s a documentary filmmaker’s dream. We have the most amazing characters here, and a lot of fascinating stories.”

Since founding Open City Films in 1994, producers Joana Vicente and Jason Kliot have earned a reputation for making unique and popular films that would probably not have received financing elsewhere.

The subject of producers’ reps—who they are and what they do—is one that a lot of us find confusing. And yet, most films that secure distribution during festivals, especially in recent years, have done so through the help of a producers’ rep.

This is the first and last “Women In Film” article filmmaker Julie Talen wants to be in. She’d rather talk about multi-channel film narratives, a form she studied in-depth before using it to tell the story of a family’s fracturing in her recent debut feature Pretend. And you can see why.

While there are alarmingly few women helming movies these days, there are more and more behind the scenes. The role of producer is one that seems increasingly open to the industry’s women and here, The Independent profiles female production teams who are changing the industry, one little movie at a time.

Big Mouth Productions
Katy Chevigny and Dallas Brennan