Women In Film Panel

Saturday November 10, 2007
1:00pm-2:30pm

Come hear successful women as they participate in a discussion on women in the film industry. Q&A to follow panel discussion. To get your tickets for this event please visit the ticket information page.

Scheduled to Appear: Moderator

Fran Lozano

Fran has served as Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Gavilan College since 2002. Prior to that appointment, she taught English and film at Gavilan College and served as Technology Committee and English Department Chairs. She taught at Hartnell, Monterey Peninsula, Fresno City, and Reedley Community Colleges and CSU Fresno. In 1995 she published Airborne, A Writer's Textbook, and since 2003, she has produced Art Is Essential for Gav-TV 18. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Carmel Bach Festival and the Performing Arts Task Force at CSU Monterey Bay. Fran's three children study art, law, and science respectively. Fran's interests include film, classical music, horseback riding, and trekking, and in that line, she has hiked in Patagonia, Sikkim, the Alps, China, and on England's Coast to Coast route. Her master's thesis, the Archetypal Role of the Female in the Lord of the Rings, reflects an abiding interest in the lore of ancient realms, both real and imaginary.

Scheduled to Appear: Guest Panelists

Anne Goursaud

Anne Goursaud is an accomplished film director and editor, with over twenty years experience in the industry. It was Francis Ford Coppola who first spotted Anne’s talent, giving her the chance to edit the film that launched Zoetrope Studios, ONE FROM THE HEART. Since then Anne has directed and edited a wide range of projects, and she has worked with some of the most highly-acclaimed professionals in the movie industry.

Anne’s directing credits include the dark thrillers EMBRACE OF THE VAMPIRE and POISON IVY II, both for New Line Cinema, and the erotic drama LOVE IN PARIS (ANOTHER 9 1/2 WEEKS) for Trimark. Her editing credits include Francis Ford Coppola’s teen classic THE OUTSIDERS, starring Matt Dillon and Tom Cruise, the Oscar-winning hit BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, starring Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins, and IRONWEED, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

Anne has a License en Histoire de L’Art from the Sorbonne and a Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia University. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Laurie Agard

Working in France, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Laurie Agard has written, directed, and produced five independent films that have sold to over 45 territories worldwide. Her first 35mm feature Frog and Wombat debuted on HBO and won numerous awards at U.S. and International film festivals including Best Actress at the Hollywood Youth in Film Awards and the Newcomer of the Year Award. It will make its network premiere on ABC this fall. Her second film Fast Women debuted at the Los Angeles Independent Film and Video Festival and won Best Documentary at the New York Film Festival. In 2004-2005 Laurie was part of the directorial team on the Australian television series, Wicked Science. In addition to directing, Laurie was an Academic All American basketball player in Kansas. She has published four books and won the Bay Area Olympiad of the Arts for poetry. Laurie was nominated as Woman of Achievement by the Northern California Women's Fund in 2000. She is currently in post production for her first independent dance film filmed in British Columbia in Aug/Sept 2007.

Susan Cartsonis

Cartsonis most recently was executive producer of NO RESERVATIONS starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhardt, and directed by Scott Hicks (SHINE), which was released July 27, 2007 and MISTRESS OF SPICES, adapted by Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM), starring Aishwarya Rai which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and was released by Miramax in 2007. Cartsonis produced the young adult film AQUAMARINE, based on the novella by best-selling author Alice Hoffman, released in March of 2006 by Fox 2000.

In 2000 The Hollywood Reporter named Susan Cartsonis one of the top five grossing producers of the year for her box office record-breaking film, WHAT WOMEN WANT starring Mel Gibson, and WHERE THE HEART IS adapted from the best-selling novel, starring Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Sally Field and Stockard Channing. Both films were developed and produced by Cartsonis as lead producer from manuscript (WHERE THE HEART IS) and pitch (WHAT WOMENT WANT) through release.

Cartsonis spent seven years as President of Wind Dancer Films, where she began her producing career with the critically acclaimed, FIRELIGHT, starring Sophie Marceau (BRAVEHEART) and Stephen Dillane (THE HOURS) written and directed by Bill Nicholson, (writer of SHADOWLANDS). Cartsonis was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox for nearly a decade. During her tenure she supervised motion pictures such as NELL, starring Jodie Foster. Foster was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award for her performance. Other films include THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, and the film BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, which launched the television show. COME SEE THE PARADISE directed by Alan Parker, FOR THE BOYS starring Bette Midler who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, and DYING YOUNG starring Julia Roberts are among others she supervised during her tenure at Fox.

Prior to her career at Fox, Cartsonis was an instructor for New York University’s Dramatic Writing Program. She received her M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from N.Y.U. and a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from U.C.L.A. She was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of the Women in Film Foundation and is a member of the Producer's Guild of America.

Fiona Gubelmann

Fiona grew up in San Diego where she spent much of her free time doing theater. When she graduated high school, she started college at UCLA in the pre-med program but before the year's end, transferred into the theater department. She graduated in just three years, eager to work in the film industry and very quickly began booking commercials. Within a year, Fiona booked her first major job in the independent film, Employee of the Month, (starring Matt Dillon, Steve Zahn, and Christina Applegate) which became one of the premier films at Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Since then, she has continued her acting training with Milton Katselas and Richard Lawson at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and has gone on to work in films including Dreamworks' very popular Blades of Glory, and has had many guest star and series leads in television shows, including "Cold Case", "Joey", "CSI:NY" and, in early November, "My Name is Earl".

Marjo Silva

The illustrious Marjo launched elementFX, a full service visual effects studio in 2005. Her effervesce allowed her to venture into the independent film world and become a visual effects supervisor on feature projects such as The Darwin Awards and In Bloom.

“The Commander” started her impressive career as an animation apprentice at Pascal Blais Productions in Montreal, Canada. She placed her magic touch on various TV series and commercials for Cine-Groupe and Big Bang Technology before being summoned to Industrial Light and Magic in 1994 for ten years of life altering experiences. Specializing in creature animation crowds and crowd choreography, Marjo was crowned lead animator/sequence supervisor on dozens of projects including Magnolia, Star Wars Episode 1, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Mummy Returns, just to drop a few.