photos from Mrya's films
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myra

Myra

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Biography

Biography
Myra Paci received an M.F.A. in Film and Television Production from New York University in 1994, graduating with the Tisch School of the Arts Excellence in Screenwriting Award. She received a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1988, graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She has taught screenwriting at San Francisco State University, California College of Arts and Crafts, and New York University. She has also lectured on her work at Yale University, Washington University, and both Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Institute of Contemporary Art.

Her films Butch Patrol, Transeltown, XXXtasy: Two Days in the Life of a Saint, Girls Night Out (starring Rosario Dawson, Daniel Von Bargen, and Anna Grace), and Searching for Paradise (starring Chris Noth, Susan May Pratt, Laila Robins, Josef Sommer, Mary Louise Wilson, and Jeremy Davies) have been shown in festivals all over the world and have won many awards. Searching for Paradise received awards for  Best Actress at the Hamptons International Film Festival, Best Actress from the Milan International Film Festival, and Best Feature Film from the Festival du Cinema Americain Independent d’Agen, France.

Transeltown is distributed in the United States by Miranda July’s Co-Star Tapes and in the United Kingdom by Cinenova Film and Video Distribution. Girls Night Out received distribution from the Sundance Channel. Searching for Paradise  is distributed by Sundance Channel Home Entertainment/Showtime Entertainment.

Ms. Paci was a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab as well as the Sundance Institute Directors Lab with Searching for Paradise in 1998.  That same year she received a residency at the MacDowell Colony to write her play The Fairy Queen. From Voice and Vision Theatre in New York City she received a residency fellowship for July 2005 to develop and workshop The Fairy Queen. New York Theatre Workshop sponsored a reading of The Fairy Queen in October 2005 which starred Ruth Maleczech and Maria Tucci.

resume

Education Professional Fellowships Teaching Experience Film and Theatre Work ( As writer, director, or both)
The Fairy Queen, full-length play, completed 2005. Reading at New York Theatre Workshop in October 2005 starring Ruth Maleczech of New York avant-garde theatre group Mabou Mines.

Spread, 2005. Twelve-minute film within television pilot for teen reality show, for Pinch Me Films. 

Saint Teresa of Avila, 2004. Commissioned feature screenplay for Merrill-Radden Productions.

Searching for Paradise, 2002. Feature film. 88 minutes Distributed by Sundance Channel Home Entertainment/Showtime

Gilda Mattei, just graduating high school, decides to stay home and take care of her dying father rather than heading off to college. He dies and her world collapses. She becomes obsessed with a Hollywood movie star who she thinks will replace her father in some way. She decides to go meet him. On her journey and in the day and night they spend together, she discovers the world is not quite as romantic as she believed.

Screenings: Awards: Girls Night Out , 1997. Short film. 32 minutes. On a Friday evening, Manhattan gallery owner Jack (50's) meets Claire and Victoria (both early 20's) on a Soho street and invites them up to his loft "to see his Max Ernst collages." What ensues is an unexpected and intimate exchange of secrets, dreams, and regrets between strangers.

Distributed by the Sundance Channel

Screenings: Awards:

When We Are Old and Grey, 1997. Short video. 8 minutes. Mixture of 16mm film and Hi8 video. A portrait of the filmmaker’s Italian grandmother, American grandmother and her Irish farmer mother-in-law.

XXXtasy: Two Days in the Life of a Saint, 1993. Short film. 29 mins. A Polish immigrant go-go dancer dreams of Hollywood. A man living in his car dreams of redemption. They meet. A comical, at times brutal,  look at the American dream.

Screenings: Awards:

Transeltown, 1992. Short film. 19 minutes. Experimental narrative that follows a Chaplinesque character on her adventures in New York City's Hell's Kitchen.

Distributed in Europe by Cinenova Film and Video Distribution, London, and in the United States in Joanie for Jackie, one of Miranda July’s Co-Star Tapes.

Screenings: Awards:

Butch Patrol, 1989. Short film. 2 minutes. A girl gang terrorize and titillate girls
with long hair.

Screenings:

L’Amour 2 , 1989. Short film and video piece. 7 minutes. A film about the dying and death of the filmmaker's father using film, video, and audio recordings. Shown on WNYC-TV/Channel 13. March 1993.

L’Amour 1 , 1989. Short film. 3 minutes.

De Amore et Anatomia, 1989. Short film. 15 minutes.

Additional Media Experience: Advertising Awards: Other Work: