“Liz Rao's The Truck is an urgent, gripping look at Teen Love and The Freedom to choose in This America right now.” - Spike Lee
”In The Truck, Liz Rao’s striking voice as writer and director transforms a coming-of-age tale into a visceral look at power dynamics in America. With poetry and courage, The Truck offers a pressing and much-needed perspective on our current moment. Evoking layered and nuanced performances from Shirley Chen and Daniel Zolghadri as two love-crossed teenagers in trouble, The Truck brings to life a quietly chilling and powerful story." - Joan Chen
* OFFICIAL SELECTION Telluride Film festival * screening MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art, New York City * WINNER, Florida Film Festival - Grand Jury Award, Best Narrative Short, Oscar-QUALIFIED * WINNER, Hamptons International Film Festival, University Short Film Award * WINNER, FLICKERS' RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - Best Screenplay * WINNER, EDINBURGH SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - BEST FILM (UK) * WINNER, Bend film festival - Jury Prize, youth jury award * Winner, Bend film festival - best student short * WINNER, Tacoma Film Festival - Best Narrative Short Film * WINNER, CHARLOTTE FILM FESTIVAL - jury award, Best Student Short Film * WINNER, BUSHWICK FILM FESTIVAL - honorable mention, short narrative film * WINNER, Asian American Showcase - JONATHAN LAXAMANA Emerging Filmmaker Award * WINNER 16 Days 16 Films (UK) - Runner-Up Award * WINNER São Paulo Film Festival - Best Cinematography * WINNER São Paulo Film Festival - Best Actress * WINNER, FUSION FILM FESTIVAL - FIRST PLACE * WINNER, NYU FIRST RUN FESTIVAL - SECOND PLACE * AWARDEE, FUTURE OF FILM IS FEMALE * OFFICIAL SELECTION, WME FUTUREFEST * official selection, Santa Barbara international Film Festival (West Coast Premiere) * official selection, Durban International Film Festival (african Premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION, Que du Feu Festival (French premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION La Guarimba Film Festival (Italian premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Durban International Film Festival (African premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Que du Feu Festival (French premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK premiere) * NOMINEE Norwich Film Festival - Best Student Film, BAFTA-qualifying (UK) * NOMINEE, Encounters Film Festival - International Competition (UK) * NOMINEE, Clapham International Film Festival - International Competition (UK) * NOMINEE, Sun Valley Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Cucalorus Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION IndieCork Film Festival (Irish Premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Chilliwack Independent Film Festival (Canadian Premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Kyiv International Short Film Festival (Ukrainian Premiere) * OFFICIAL SELECTION Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK) * NOMINEE Hawaii International Film Festival - In Competition * OFFICIAL SELECTION San Diego International Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Asian American International Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Chicago Critics Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Salute Your Shorts * OFFICIAL SELECTION Cinema Femme Short Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Nantucket Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION RiverRun International Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION San Diego Asian Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Catalina Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Brooklyn Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Montana Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION El Paso Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Southside Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Kansas City FilmFest International * OFFICIAL SELECTION Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival
THE TRUCK
oscar-longlisted for best live action short film
50+ festivals, and 20 awards worldwide
FOR details & latest updates visit: THE TRUCK FILM WEBSITE
Against the simmering anxieties of post-Roe America, Jo, 16, and Arash, her boyfriend, attempt to buy the morning-after pill in a small town where reproductive rights are contested and quietly policed.
Executive Producers JOAN CHEN and SPIKE LEE
Starring SHIRLEY CHEN, DANIEL ZOLGHADRI, and GARRETT RICHMOND
With DUVALL O'STEEN and BRIAN MCCARTHY
a GOLDEN MEDINA FILMS and ZAZA PRODUCTION
Writer-Director LIZ RAO
Producer ELIZA SOROS
Co-Writer JONATHAN FRED SCHNEIDER
Director of Photography GIANNA BADIALI
Casting Directors KATE ANTOGNINI and CHARLOTTE ARNOUX, CSA
Production Design MARIANNE AUVINET GOULD
Co-Executive Producers LINHAO ZHANG and JUNGYOON KIM
Co-Producer YUANLI ZHOU
Associate Producers MANYA GLASSMAN and LORA CRINER
Editor ANDREW MIGLIORI
Music by OREL TAMUZ
Colorist BENJAMIN HANDLER
Production Sound Mixer NIGAM BHANDARI
Sound Design ROTEM DROR
With Additional Sound Mix and Sound Design by HAINA ZHOU
Art Director REBECCA YEONG AE MZENGI COREY
Costume Designer LAUREN CARMEN
Costume Consultant JASMINE LEWIS
1st AC JASON MASELLE
2nd AC GABI AZEVEDO
Gaffer CHARLIE THEOBALD
Key Grip HUNTER STARK
1st Assistant Director MC HARVEY
Unit Production Manager TERRENCE SHU
Hair and Make-Up Artist and Wardrober RACHAEL SONNENBERG
Rigging Grip GULAB SINGH
Intimacy Coordinators BAHAR BAHARLOO and ALEXANDRA TYDINGS
Poster Design and Thumbnail Design SHIPEI WANG
Title Design CADE FEATHERSTONE
Director’s Assistant ANNA ZHANG
With Additional Original Music by GILAD BARAKAN
“Your Baby Blues” vocals by ANDY BRAME
“Jo’s song” vocals by SHIRLEY CHEN
“Tardigrades” vocals by LIZ RAO
madeline’s madeline
STARRING HELENA HOWARD, MIRANDA JULY, and MOLLY PARKER
WRITER-DIRECTOR * Josephine Decker
PRODUCER * Krista Parris
Producer & Co-EDITOR * ELIZABETH RAO
CINEMATOGRAPHER * Ashley Connor
PRODUCTION DESIGN * Charlotte Royer
COSTUME DESIGN * Sarah Maiorino* OFFICIAL SELECTION Sundance Film Festival * OFFICIAL SELECTION Berlinale * OFFICIAL SELECTION BAM Cinemafest, Closing night * double NOMINEE Gotham awards (Best Feature, Breakthrough actor) * NOMINEE Indie Spirit Awards (Best Female Lead, Best cinematography) * ICS AWARD for BEST EDITING "One of the freshest and most exciting films of the 21st century…A Mind Scrambling Masterpiece" -INDIEWIRE "An ecstatic, anguished, fiercely empathetic masterwork" -THE NEW YORKER "The Best Film of 2018" -THE NEW YORKER "Top 100 Best Movies of the Decade" -INDIEWIRE " ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐" -THE GUARDIAN "...Singular and profound, an unruly and uncompromised work of art" -BARRY JENKINS
materna (2020)
WRITER-DIRECTOR * David Gutnik PRODUCERS * Emily McEvoy, Liz Cardenas CINEMATOGRAPHER * Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj, Kelly Jeffrey EDITOR * Elizabeth Rao, Brusi Olason PRODUCTION DESIGN * Heather Yancey, April Lasky, Rasul Kochkorbaev COSTUME DESIGN * Akua Murray-Adoboe, elvira kochkorbaev * Double-Award Winner Tribeca Film Festival (Best Actress, Best Cinematography) * WINNER Best Narrative Feature at Naples INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL * WINNER Best Narrative Feature at Florida Film Festival * Award-winner at Raindance Film Festival, Denver INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, BendFilm Festival * San Francisco INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL * Nashville Film Festival, Champs-Elysees Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Bahamas Film Festival, American Film Festival and MORE "Arresting...each section leaves it's mark" -NYTIMES "Spellbinding performances" -INDIEWIRE "Absorbing" -ROGER EBERT "Nothing short of radical...leaves a lasting and profound impression" -SCREEN QUEENS
MAINELAND
DIRECTOR * Miao Wang PRODUCERS * Violet Du Feng, Damon G. Smith CINEMATOGRAPHER * Sean Price Williams EDITOR * Elizabeth Rao * WINNER SXSW Special Jury Award Winner for Excellence in Observational Cinema * WINNER Best Documentary Feature, Independent Film Festival of Boston * WINNER Audience Award, New Hampshire Film Festival NY Times Critics' Pick "MAINELAND takes up a large and complicated set of topics — the global economy, the shifting relations between East and West, the commodification of American education — and addresses them with understated delicacy" -A.O. SCOTT "Captures the Dreams and Anxieties of Affluent Chinese Teens At an American Boarding School...a Quiet Marvel of a documentary" -THE NEW YORKER