New York Filmmakers - Celia Rowlson-Hall

Celia Rowlson-Hall is an American

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

, and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. She has choreographed numerous music videos and commercials, and has directed several short films. Her debut feature film, ''MA'', was released in 2015.

Early life

Rowlson-Hall grew up in

Urbanna, Virginia Urbanna is a town in Middlesex County, Virginia, United States. Urbanna means “City of Anne” and was named in honor of England's Queen Anne. The population was 476 at the 2010 census. Geography Urbanna is located at (37.637796, −76 ...

, and graduated from the

University of North Carolina School of the Arts The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is an arts school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants high school, undergraduate, and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina School of the Arts by then-Governo ...

in 2006 with a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in dance.

Career

Rowlson-Hall moved to New York after finishing college and initially worked in theater dance and choreography. She was mentored by New York choreographer

Faye Driscoll Faye Driscoll is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. Her works have been presented throughout the United States and around the world. On Broadway, Driscoll choreographed Young Jean Lee's play ''Straight White Men''. Driscoll also chor ...

, and won a

Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

for performance in Driscoll's ''837 Venice Blvd'' in 2009. She first became involved in filmmaking in 2008, when director

Ray Tintori Ray Tintori is an American director, screenwriter and founding member of Court 13, the filmmaking collective behind ''Beasts of the Southern Wild''. He has directed three short films, as well as several music videos for bands, such as MGMT, Chairlif ...

hired her to choreograph the music video for

MGMT MGMT () is an American indie rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of ...

's song "

Electric Feel "Electric Feel" is a song by the American rock band MGMT, released as the second single from their debut studio album ''Oracular Spectacular'' (2007) on June 23, 2008. The single was released as a 7" and CD single, and later on 12" vinyl. "Electri ...

". In 2010, she directed her first short film, ''Prom Night'', in which she also cast herself; it was nominated for a Grand Jury Award at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

. She went on to direct two further short films, ''The Audition'' (2012) and ''Si Nos Dejan'' (2013). In 2013, Rowlson-Hall began working as a choreographer on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

''; she also choreographed ''Girls'' creator

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations a ...

in a video for ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' magazine. She has choreographed commercials for clients including

Lee Jeans Lee is an American brand of denim jeans, first produced in 1889 in Salina, Kansas. The company is owned by Kontoor Brands, a spin-off of VF Corporation's Jeanswear Division. Since 2019 its headquarters has been in Greensboro, North Carolina, re ...

and

Kate Spade New York Kate Spade New York is an American fashion house founded in January 1993 by Kate and Andy Spade. Kate Spade New York competes with Michael Kors. In 2017, the company was purchased by Tapestry, Inc., formerly known as Coach, Inc. Business hist ...

, and music videos for artists including

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

and Sleigh Bells. She was named one of ''

Filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

'' magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2015. Rowlson-Hall's first feature film, ''MA'' (2015), is a modern retelling of the story of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

in which Rowlson-Hall plays the lead role. The film, which Rowlson-Hall funded via

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

, was screened at the

72nd Venice International Film Festival The 72nd annual Venice International Film Festival took place from 2 to 12 September 2015. Alfonso Cuarón served as the President of the Jury for the main competition. A restored version of Federico Fellini's film '' Amarcord'' was shown at the ...

and

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fun ...

. In 2017, she created the short film ''(The nd) of History Illusion' for

Miu Miu Miu Miu is an Italian high fashion women's clothing and accessory brand and a fully owned subsidiary of Prada. It is headed by Miuccia Prada and headquartered in Paris, France. History Miu Miu was established in 1992 by Miuccia Prada. The name ...

as the 14th installment in their ''

Women's Tales ''Women's Tales'' is an ongoing short film anthology series created by fashion brand Miu Miu. Aside from the stipulation that the films use Miu Miu clothing the all female directors are given carte blanche to create their films. Miu Miu has commissi ...

'' series.

Personal life

In September 2018, Rowlson-Hall married Mia Lidofsky, a filmmaker whom she had met in 2013 when they worked together on ''Girls''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlson-Hall, Celia Living people American choreographers American women choreographers 21st-century American dancers American female dancers American film directors American women film directors American LGBT artists LGBT people from Virginia University of North Carolina School of the Arts alumni People from Urbanna, Virginia Year of birth missing (living people) Bessie Award winners 21st-century American women 21st-century LGBT people