Elisabeth Fies

Height: 165 cm

The prolific, funny, and fearless writer/director/producer of feature thriller "The Commune", awarded Best International Picture at Bram Stoker Festival.Despite the terrible timing of winning "Best Action Screenplay" by Fade In Magazine and "Best Thriller Screenplay" by Creative Screenwriting Magazine days before the 2007 Writers's Strike, Elisabeth's unproduced spaghetti western script "Pistoleras" took the blogosphere by storm and remains her most requested screenplay. Her forte is thriller/horror and superhero actioners. Fies cites Star Wars and Twin Peaks as influences ingested at a cellular level, and most wishes she had directed "Terminator 2". Elisabeth's undergraduate UCLA years included interning at Debra Hill Productions and doing stunts as monsters on the The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. With a prestigious grant from Do Something, she created and starred in the indie TV show "Kids Know it All!" After earning her first Masters degree from New School University in Media Studies, she returned to UCLA to study screenwriting in the renowned Professional Program, where co-chair Hal Ackerman declared her a brilliant writer.Before embarking on her own filmmaking career, Fies was an associate producer on acclaimed no-budget triumph "Conventioneers", a political Romeo & Juliet tale that overcame industry powerhouses "Brick" and "Puffy Chair" to claim the 2006 Independent Spirit Award in the John Cassavettes category.Lis comes from a family of accomplished artists she refers to as the Tennebaums or "West Coast Sedaris clan." She learned how to read on her cartoonist brother's Avengers comic books. In 2005, Brian Fies won the first digital Eisner Award for Mom's Cancer, an intimate graphic novel starring Elisabeth, sister Brenda, himself, and their deceased mom Barbara.Fies collaborates with her sister Brenda on film shorts. In 2010, the diabolical Fies Sisters founded BleedFest. The mission grew out of their experience taking The Commune on the festival circuit and finally meeting other women with similar taste. The BleedFest Film Festival has screened over 100 films; celebrated the works of Anna Biller, Stacey Title, and mentor Katt Shea; and presented Partnership Awards to male genre luminaries like Ryan Levin, Lucky McKee and Drew Daywalt who create multidimensional female characters. Many alums state BleedFest has given them more press and opportunities than any other festival.Lis is an accomplished academic whose published work includes a graduate thesis on Catwoman's feminist influence on twentieth century pop culture. She is the rare auteur who is as comfortable onset as she is in the classrooms of her alma maters New School and UCLA. A founding member of the Scribosphere, Lis is a supportive and accessible mentor to screenwriters and DIY filmmakers and loves speaking on panels. Her work has been extensively profiled everywhere from the L.A. Times, NY Times, Huffington Post, FEARnet to Cinematical.Voted a top 10 movie reviewer by millions of Netflix subscribers three years running, Lis Fies above all remains passionate about storytelling. Show less «

With The Commune my entire goal was to make a movie where a horrific rape happened to a girl we empa...Show more »

With The Commune my entire goal was to make a movie where a horrific rape happened to a girl we empathized with and cared about, so that instead of taking the violence for granted the audience was impinged. 1 in 5 women will be raped in their lifetime, with a startling number of these rapes committed by relatives. Yet you can't turn on nightly TV without seeing a top-rated procedural show whose bread and butter is making sport of violence against women and desensitizing audiences to the reality of the dangerous world we aren't taking responsibility for. Show less «

Ultimately it's a filmmaker's job to be controversial and outspoken and make audiences think. Artist...Show more »

Ultimately it's a filmmaker's job to be controversial and outspoken and make audiences think. Artists are supposed to be sacred guardians of their society's conscience, and when they aren't, historically, is when a society falls. We're at a point when indie filmmakers have taken over the means of production, but there's little creativity. This golden opportunity is being wasted in timid and soulless material. It's our job to tell original, notorious tales that push film and our audiences forward instead of aping a Hollywood blockbuster or whatever was hip at Sundance last season. With the exception of Crispin Glover, why aren't filmmakers making subversive pieces a la "The Night Porter," "The Magic Christian," "Holy Mountain" or "One Eye"? You're not a cog in the Hollywood wheel, so grow some balls and stop ripping off "Saw." Write and direct something audacious and educated with a point that isn't for a paycheck, and the world will be a better place. Show less «

I'm a thinker, so I ask a lot of tough questions of myself, of others, of life. But "The Commune" is...Show more »

I'm a thinker, so I ask a lot of tough questions of myself, of others, of life. But "The Commune" isn't about any particular religious practice and I'm not against organized religion. I'm against zealots and hypocrites. Show less «

Ultimately, "The Commune" is a stepping stone to helming my life mission: "Pistoleras." It has won b...Show more »

Ultimately, "The Commune" is a stepping stone to helming my life mission: "Pistoleras." It has won big screenwriting awards like Creative Screenwriting Expo's best action script, and already has fans, and is anxiously awaited. It's a franchise, it's a video game, and it's a way of life that could help change the world. My team just needs a few more investors and celebrities whose missions align with ours, and then there will be a new sheriff in town to take down the global epidemic of sex slavery. Show less «

I adore a smart psychological thriller, but their audiences are sophisticated and too many modern fi...Show more »

I adore a smart psychological thriller, but their audiences are sophisticated and too many modern filmmakers are lazy copycats instead of talented mix artists with film knowledge beyond 1995. You have to come up with a new thriller/horror idea that isn't "someone who you think is dead isn't" or "someone is schizophrenic and doesn't know it!" Show less «

Elisabeth Fies

Elisabeth Fies's FILMOGRAPHY

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