Elisabeth Subrin — A Woman, A Part

Subrin's first feature narrative film, A Woman, A Part examines a transformational moment in the life of Anna Baskin, a successful LA actress in emotional, physical and professional crisis. Anna is known by millions of viewers for the crisply professional, brittle journalist she plays on a weekly television series. But she finds herself imprisoned by this role, and unable to locate the passion that caused her to embrace acting in the first place. Her journey back to New York is a journey into her past, colliding her with colleagues, friends and past loves whose lives she unwillingly changed when she made the choices that she now questions so deeply. The intimate story of Anna and her friends is magnified by the film’s surrounding political and social themes and issues: friendship, gentrification, addiction, autoimmune disease, careerism, sexism in the film industry and the hazy lines between authenticity and acting.

‘Subrin’s A Woman, A Part testifies to the expansive complexity that can be generated out of a restricted set of parameters when expertly executed. (...). [Its] refreshing departures from the norm are to be found less in the film’s form, which remains rather conventional, and more in its treatment of human subjects, particularly its willingness to push back against hackneyed character types and insist on the need to represent diverse people and experiences onscreen. If only more American independent cinema was this poignant and compelling.’
- Erika Balsom in Artforum

Elisabeth Subrin (°1965) is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist whose films have screened widely at film festivals internationally. Her work has been shown in solo presentations at Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, The Jewish Museum, NY, The Vienna Viennale, The ICA/Philadelphia, and a critically acclaimed retrospective at Sue Scott Gallery, New York. She's received grants from The Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Annenberg and Creative Capital Foundations, and participated in The Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. She's an Associate Professor of Film and Media Art at Temple University.

Credits: Written & Directed by Elisabeth Subrin / Starring Maggie Siff, Cara Seymour, John Ortiz, Khandi Alexander / Produced by Scott Macaulay & Shrihare Sathe / Cinematography by Chris Dapkins / Editing by Jenn Ruff / Music by Missy Mazzoli, Micachu and the Shapes