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Director Wins
Screenwriting
Prize
Hudson
Valley native Hilary Brougher won the Waldo Salt screenwriting prize at the
2006
Sundance Film Festival last weekend for her drama "Stephanie
Daley,"
starring Tilda Swinton ("The Chronicles of Narnia") and Amber
Tamblyn
(TV's "Joan of Arcadia").
Brougher, who
wrote
and directed the film, was born in Catskill, grew up in New Paltz and
graduated
from Kingston High School in 1986.
She now resides
in
Manhattan, but she shot the film locally with the help of the Woodstock Film
Commission and Catskill Mountain Arts Foundation.
"The
atmosphere
of the area definitely permeates (the film)," Brougher said in a phone
interview yesterday. "We shot in Catskill, Hunter and Phonecia, and I
grew
up hiking in those mountains. It was wonderful to be back there. It feels
like a
place I have a deep attachment to."
The production
also
shot at Tannersville High School using real students.
"There are
so
many local people in the film and so many wonderful surprises that the
community
brought to the screen," Brougher said.
Tamblyn stars as
the
title character, a high school girl who gives birth to a baby who is later
found
dead. Swinton plays a forensic psychologist hired to investigate Stephanie's
case, but she, too, is pregnant and approaches the case from a very personal
perspective.
A mother of two
herself, Brougher found juxtaposing these women's stories very
rewarding.
"It's one
of
those movies that people find cathartic and resonant and walk away talking
about
their own lives," she said.
With
"Daley" having gone through the Sundance Institute Labs for both
screenwriting and directing, Brougher felt that bringing it to the United
States' biggest film festival was only natural.
"It kind of
felt like I was bringing the movie home," she said.
She described
the
Sundance experience as "three different realities at once."
"It's a
very
intense festival. Sort of a bizarre combination of paparazzi, incredible
filmmakers and film lovers as well as some business thrown in,"
Brougher
said.
By winning the
screenwriting award, Brougher has all but assured that her film will reach a
mass audience.
"Within a
week,
we should have a deal. It's in the works," she said.
recordonline.com
February 03, 2006
By
Germain Lussier
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