SCA Alumni Screening Series Presents: HURT

ABOUT HURT

Set in Arizona, Hurt follows the Coltrane family as they grapple with the untimely death of the father, Robert. Forced to abandon their privileged lifestyle, Helen Coltrane (Melora Walters) and her teenage children Conrad (Jackson Rathbone) and Lenore (Johanna E. Braddy) are given shelter by her husband’s reclusive brother Darryl (William Mapother) in his ramshackle home in the desert. As the family reluctantly settles in, a fresh challenge is presented by the arrival of Sarah (Sofia Vassilieva), a lovely yet troubled foster child whom Robert had pledged to take in. The family’s grief turns to dread as a series of tragic, inexplicable incidents befall them.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.


ABOUT THE GUESTS

Barbara Stepansky (Director/Co-Writer) was born in Poland, but her father's involvement in the Solidarity movement led to the family relocating to Germany. After receiving an undergraduate degree in philosophy of science from University College London, Barbara decided to pursue her Master's at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. During her time at USC her short Blueberry Pancakes garnered the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award in the women's category and played at the Kodak Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Program in Cannes. In 2002 she was invited to participate in Film Independent's Directors' Lab. Most recently, Barbara completed a second graduate degree in Directing at the American Film Institute, where she won the Student Emmy for Best Director for her thesis film, The Trojan Cow. The award is significant because this is the first time it has been given out on a student level. The film also won the Student Voices Jackson Hole Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the USA Film Festival National Film and Video Competition, making it eligible for the Academy Awards. Barbara is the recipient of several scholarships, including the King Family Foundation Scholarship for Excellence in Film and Video Production, the Mary Pickford Foundation Scholarship for Excellence, the Bridges Larson Foundation Production Award, the Patrick Peyton Award for Excellence, and the Franklin J. Schaffner AFI Fellow Award.

William Mapother (Actor, "Darryl") has displayed remarkable versatility through a wide range of roles in film and television and is perhaps most recognizable from his role as Marisa Tomei's husband in the critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated film In the Bedroom. Along with his fellow cast members, he received a SAG Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture. His other feature film credits include World Trade Center, The Grudge, Lords of Dogtown, Minority Report, Without Limits, Swordfish and Mission Impossible 2. William has worked with such notable directors as Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Stephen Frears, Paul Thomas Anderson, Cameron Crowe, and Robert Towne. Mapother can next be seen in a pair of independent films: starring in Moola, along with Treat Williams and Annabelle Gurwitch, and co-starring in The Lather Effect with Tate Donovan and directed by Sara Kelly (Full Tilt Boogie). His recent television projects include his recurring role as Ethan Rom on the hit TV show Lost as well as the Fox pilot K-Ville, the Paramount pilot Skip Tracer, and episodes of CSI, CSI:Miami, Law & Order: SVU, Threshold, NCIS, and Crossing Jorden, among others. While living in New York City, Mapother directed a production of "North of Providence". Prior to acting, he taught grades 7-12 for three years in East Los Angeles for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in English Literature.

Johanna E. Braddy (Actor "Lenore")  has recently been seen in such popular hit series as Cold Case and The Riches, as well as lending her voice to the latest animated penguin feature, Surf's Up. Among her feature film credits are Broken Bridges opposite Toby Keith and Kelly Preston and the upcoming Home of the Giants with Haley Joel Osment. Early on, Braddy made her career choice when she announced after attending a performance of Swan Lake that that was what she wanted to do - at age three. That year she began taking ballet and continued into jazz, tap and point. Not surprising for someone who was singing complete songs at 13 months of age! Braddy later made her theatrical debut at eight years old in the role of Tessie in Annie at the Fox Theatre with the Theatre of the Stars in Atlanta, Georgia, and was cast in four more plays at the Fox Theatre. She auditioned for and was cast in multiple roles in the Atlanta Workshop Players (AWP) Tour Show, a troupe of talented kids and teens who perform musicals for schools all over the state of Georgia and the southeast. She remained with the AWP for eight years and attended their summer acting camp, where she secured representation from a talent agent, thus starting her film career.

Sofia Vassilieva (Actor, "Sarah") is perhaps best known to audiences for her series regular role of Ariel Dubois on the Emmy Award-winning, Golden Globe-nominated hit show Medium. Born to Russian immigrant parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Vassilieva began reading her ancestral language at age three, the same year she began studying French and ballet. At 5, she was practicing gymnastics and at 10, was riding horses and studying sign language. The precocious youngster was discovered at the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) in New York in 2000, where she won the title of Child Actress and first runner-up in Child Model of The Year. Shortly after, Vassilieva was cast as Cindy Brady in The Brady Bunch in the White House (2002) opposite Shelley Long and Gary Cole, and went on to play the children's book heroine Eloise, in two made-for-television movies for ABC, Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime, with Julie Andrews as Nanny, along with Jeffrey Tambor and Christine Baranski. Vassilieva won a Young Artist Award in 2006 for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama for her role in Medium, which also garnered her a nomination for a SyFy Portal Genre Award as best young actor/actress in 2005. Sofia recently completed filming Day Zero (2007), with Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jon Bernthal, Ally Sheedy and Elisabeth Moss.

Nikolette Orlandou (Line Producer) is a native of Athens, Greece and was recently the Associate Producer on Scary Movie 4. In 2003, she came on board Scary Movie 3 to assist producer Robert K. Weiss (The Blues Brothers, The Naked Gun) with whom she worked closely for three years and, among other duties, helped to develop an animated feature and launch a Direct-to-DVD enterprise. Previous film projects include The Forsaken, as assistant to the cinematographer, and Identity, directed by James Mangold. Other industry experience includes a tenure at A Band Apart, Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino's production company. Orlandou maintains a continued commitment to Greek cinema and culture through her various volunteer efforts; she served as a programmer for the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival in 2007, during its inaugural year. She is currently developing a couple of features, one of which written by another USC alum, Paul R. Lingas. Nikolette is a graduate of the USC School of Cinema and Television with a degree in production.

Dana Niu (Composer) has worked as a composer and orchestrator for over 70 films. She grew up in Binghamton, NY, and began her music studies at age four, playing piano and flute. Dana holds a degree in music composition and film scoring from University of Southern California. Her orchestration credits include Live Free or Die Hard, The Prestige, The Pursuit of Happyness, and the upcoming films The International and The Eye. Her composing credits include music for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the recently released Big Bad Wolf.

Adam King (Supervising Sound Editor) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of two scientists. He received his Bachelor's Degrees at the University of Pennsylvania in Fine Arts and Art History and his Master's in Film Production from the University of Southern California. At USC, Adam focused on directing and animation, having directed eleven short films prior to his thesis, The Wraith of Cobble Hill, which won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Best Animated Short awards at the 2006 South by Southwest and Los Angeles Film Festivals. He also specialized in sound editing and mixing and was sound designer for the Labyrinth Project, a group that creates interactive installations for galleries and museums. Adam worked with Hungarian filmmaker Peter Forgac on his Getty Center installation, The Danube Exodus, and with Los Angeles-based artist Pat O'Neil on Tracing the Decay of Fiction, which premiered at the Zentrum fur Kunst in Karlsruhe, Germany. In addition, Adam was the sound mixer on the award-winning feature documentaries Cockfight and Circus Rosaire, and was the sound designer on the 2006 Sundance feature premiere Special. Currently, Adam is working on his first feature animated film while continuing his sound design work in Los Angeles.

ABOUT CHECK-IN & RESERVATIONS

This screening is presented free of charge and is open to all USC students, faculty, staff and alumni. The theater will be OVERBOOKED to ensure capacity and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-serve basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will be automatically sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Check-in will begin at approximately 7:00PM.

ABOUT PARKING

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 850 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes are available for Parking Structure D and Lots M & V (across the street from the George Lucas Building) for $8.00. You must pull into Gate 5, located at the intersection of McClintock Ave. and W Jefferson Boulevard and purchase your parking pass with the booth attendant. Street parking is also available along W Jefferson Blvd.

To view the full schedule of films during the Alumni Screening Series, click here.