Sonia the Movie : Key Bios

KEY BIOS

Lucy Kostelanetz, Director
This is Lucy Kostelanetz’s first documentary feature. Her previous work included two award-winning films for children, REBEKA GOES DOWN THE SLIDE and REBEKA GOES TO CHINA. She is currently working on a film about the band, Miller, Miller, Miller & Sloan, entitled WE DON'T WANNA MAKE YOU DANCE, a kind of 28UP of a rock band.

Ms. Kostelanetz’s career shares many similarities with her protagonist, Sonia. She too worked on behalf of art and artists in a number of directorial positions at the New York State Council on the Arts during its early creative, idealistic period (1968–1981). She also has served twice on the Board of International Film Seminars, presenter of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, and as their president from 2000-2001.

Maria Tucci, Actress
Maria Tucci, a TONY nominee, has worked extensively on and off Broadway, in movies and on television, and has been a regular on LAW AND ORDER. She has lent her voice many times to readings at Selected Shorts and other events at Symphony Space in Manhattan such as their Wall to Wall Balanchine where she read from Alexandra Danilova’s memoirs and at the Thalia Book Club where she read from Azar Nafisi’s READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN. She is also a translator of the works of the Italian playwright Eduardo De Fillippo.

Brandt Fredriksen, Pianist
Pianist Brandt Fredriksen performs as soloist and chamber artist throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is a member of the American Virtuosi Chamber players, the Madrid Chamber players, and is Artistic Director of the Enochian Foundation. Currently he is on the piano faculty at Georgia State University and Manhattan School of Music.

Jared Dubrino, Editor
Jared Dubrino has worked as a film and video editor on both fiction and documentary films. His last editing job was on a historical documentary, VARIAN & PUTZI: A 20TH CENTURY TALE. With SONIA he has had the opportunity to create and develop an innovative style of motion graphics using historical photographs, artwork and historical footage.

Todd Sines, Typographer and Graphic Designer
Todd Sines is director and founder of + SCALE, a company specializing in graphic design and direction for films, television, interactive and print media. Prior to starting + SCALE, he was a senior graphic designer for the Wexner Center for the Arts.

George Griffin, Animator
As well as his own work, George Griffin has done animation for commercials, PSA’s and openers for films such as the documentary, BAUHAUS IN AMERICA by Judith Pearlman. His recently completed animation entitled IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS was shown at Film Forum.

Mathew Lutz-Kinoy, Artist
Mathew Lutz-Kinoy is an interdisciplinary artist currently studying in Berlin at the Universitat der Kunst. He graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York in 2007.

Dr. Jane Sharp, Art Historian
Dr. Sharp is an Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers and is responsible for research at the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union in the Zimmerli Art Museum. She was co-curator of the exhibition The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932, at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1992. In 2007 her book, RUSSIAN MODERNISM BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: NATALIA GONCHAROVA AND THE MOSCOW AVANT-GARDE, 1905-14 won the prestigious Robert Motherwell Prize from the Dedalus Art Foundation.

Dr. Sharp is the founder of 41 Degrees Art Press and plans to publish a book about Sofia Dymshitz-Tolstaya providing informative and insightful context for many of the memoirs and documents referred to in the film as well as the art.
http://www.41degrees.eu/pages/publications.htm

Photograph: Lucy Kostelanetz in Moscow with Sonia’s granddaughter, Marina, and great, great granddaughter, Masha.