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Leading Independent Film Producer

NYS Writers Institute, October 27, 2006
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Science Library 340
7:00 p.m. Commentary after Film screening | Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., Downtown Campus

PROFILE
Christine Vachon, leading independent film producer, is a driving force of the "indie" revolution that has transformed American cinema during the past fifteen years. She is also responsible, more than anyone else in the business, for bringing gay and lesbian-themed films to mass market audiences. Vachon's breakthrough film was Poison (1991), the first of many collaborative efforts with director Todd Haynes. Poison received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance International Film Festival. Eight other films produced by Vachon have since been nominated for that same prize.

Vachon has served as producer or executive producer for a large body of award-winning work that includes The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), Mrs. Harris (2005), A Dirty Shame (2004), At Home at the End of the World (2004), The Company (2003), Camp (2003), Far From Heaven (2002), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000), Boys Don't Cry (1999), Happiness (1998), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Stonewall (1995), Postcards from America (1995), Safe (1995), Kids (1995), Go Fish (1994), and Swoon (1992).

Vachon's latest film is the Truman Capote story, Infamous (2006), based on the book by George Plimpton, starring Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock and Gwynyth Paltrow. Other films in production include Savage Grace (2007), directed by Tom Kalin and starring Julianne Moore; a 2007 documentary about singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, directed by Sam Mendes; I'm Not There (2006), a film based on the life of Bob Dylan, directed by Todd Haynes; and The Lonely Doll (2006), directed by Julian Schnabel. She is also collaborating with public radio host Ira Glass on a new Showtime television series based on the hit radio series, "This American Life," a production of WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio, which is distributed to public radio stations nationwide by Public Radio International (PRI).

Vachon is also the author of two books, A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond (2006), and Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter (1998).

"Glamorously adventurous but sometimes scarily truthful, Christine Vachon's funny, insightful new book about producing independent movies reads like a thriller." - maverick filmmaker John Waters (for A Killer Life)

"The parents of every film student should save the money they're spending sending their kids to school and just buy them a copy of this book." - producer Scott Rudin

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.