Creative Team

LANIE ZIPOY / DIRECTOR

Lanie is a Memphis-born, Brooklyn-based director and producer. The Subject marks her feature film directorial debut. Lanie was named the Best Director at the Newark International Film Festival and The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival. She received the Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award from the Harlem International Film Festival.

She directed the short film Kid Sister as well as the play, which starred Zazie Beetz (Joker, Atlanta) and Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah, The Deuce) in their first roles. She has produced indie narrative and documentary features. Her short film 17 Things I Wish I Could Tell You Since You Died played at Mini Fest in spring 2020.

Her theater producing credits include Bethany, starring America Ferrera, and Voices Inside/Out, a prison theatrical exchange program, which featured Michael Shannon, Ashlie Atkinson, and Ron Canada.

Lanie is a Time Warner Foundation Fellow of the 2012-2014 Lab at WP Theater.

laniezipoy.com

CHISA HUTCHINSON / Screenwriter

Chisa Hutchinson (B.A. Vassar College; M.F.A NYU – TSoA) is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter. Most recently, her radio drama, Proof of Love, was presented by Audible and New York Theatre Workshop in NYC and can now be found on Audible’s digital platform. With a 4.6 rating and everything, too. So that’s pretty cool. Chisa’s happily presented her other plays, which include Dirt Rich, She Like Girls,The Subject, Somebody’s Daughter, Alondra Was Here, Surely Goodness And Mercy, Whitelisted and Dead & Breathing at such venues as the Lark Theater, SummerStage, Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Theater, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the National Black Theatre, Second Stage Theater, and Arch 468 in London. She has been a Humanitas Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Lark Fellow, Resident at Second Stage Theater and New Dramatists, a New York NeoFuturist, and a staff writer for the Blue Man Group. Here are some of her awards and whatnot: a GLAAD Award, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award. Currently, She writes original screenplays, too. Her first feature, The Subject, has been played more than 40 festivals, winning 30+ awards.

chisahutchinson.com

DARREN JOE / DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

A San Francisco area native, Darren’s Emmy Award-winning work is informed by his training as a classical dancer, a degree in video art and photography, and his prior career in Information Technology Management. While his concentration is narrative and documentary, he continues to work in both television and commercial spaces. Darren has lensed films across the world; including the UK, France, and India. His films have been shown in international festivals; such as Sundance and Cannes.