Cindy Baer is an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

, director, producer, and entrepreneur. She helms the production company Free Dream Pictures, located in Burbank, California. She directed and produced the independent feature films '' Purgatory House'' and ''Odd Brodsky'', and frequently appears on filmmaking panels across the country, speaking as an expert on low budget filmmaking.

Career

Cindy Baer is a film and stage actress, director, and producer who resides in Los Angeles, California. She specializes in independent and often female-centric films. (Film Radar) Baer made her feature debut as both a director and producer with the groundbreaking,

micro-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

, independent film, '' Purgatory House'' which was entirely written by 14-year-old Celeste Davis, who Baer had been mentoring in the Big Sisters of Los Angeles program for several years prior. A

postmodernist Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

revealed in four timelines, Purgatory House explores the themes of teen

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

and

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, as it chronicles the

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

journey of Silver Strand, a troubled teen who abandoned her life of turmoil in search of unconditional love. Groundbreaking in 2001, Purgatory House was one of the first features to be shot with digital cameras (in the

mini-DV DV refers to a family of codecs and videotape, tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of camcorder, video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DV was strongly ...

format), edited with home-based computers, and incorporate extensive blue and green screen

compositing Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously ca ...

and visual effects. It screened at 25 film festivals, won 12 festival awards, 2 PRISM Award Nominations, and appeared on 5 critics lists for "Best Films of the Year" It marked the beginning of the

democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...

of film, when it received distribution from

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 ...

, one of the largest digital distributors in North America, in 2007. Baer's second feature Odd Brodsky, which was co-written with her cinematographer husband Matthew Irving screened in 29 film festivals and won 20 festival awards. A quirky, offbeat, comedy, the story line follows 30-something Audrey Brodsky aka "Odd Brodsky" (played by Tegan Ashton Cohan) who quits her dreary desk job to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an actress. A departure in genre from her debut Purgatory House, many of the same themes prevail, such as isolation, media/TV influence, and the longing for a deeper connection. It also dabbles in

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

, and has elements of

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...

. Odd Brodsky premiered on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

in November 2016. Baer is also an entrepreneur who has founded four companies, including the two non-profit organizations The Mosaic Theatre company in 2000 and Patron of the Arts in 2009. She founded the production company Free Dream Pictures in 2001, and the children's entertainment company Daizy the Clown & Company at the age 22, which she later sold. She started her career as an actress at the age of 14 at the Boston Children's Theatre and has performed in over two dozen plays. She starred in and produced the 30th Anniversary production of the stage play

Butterflies Are Free ''Butterflies Are Free'' is a 1972 American comedy-drama film based on the 1969 play by Leonard Gershe. The 1972 film was produced by M. J. Frankovich, released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Milton Katselas and adapted for the screen by Gers ...

, which was written by

Leonard Gershe Leonard Gershe (June 10, 1922 – March 9, 2002) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist. Born in New York City, Gershe made his Broadway debut as a lyricist for the 1950 revue '' Alive and Kicking''. He wrote the book for Harold Ro ...

, at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood, California.

References

External links

Free Dream Pictures LLC
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baer, Cindy Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American film producers American women film directors 20th-century American actresses American women film producers 21st-century American women