Karyn Kusama

Karyn Kusama (born March 21, 1968)^[1] is an American independent film director known for the 2000 film Girlfight,^[2] which she wrote, directed, and produced.^[3] Kusama went on to direct 2005's Æon Flux and 2009's Jennifer's Body. She directed the 2015 horror film, The Invitation, and has recently worked as a television director.^[4]

Early life

Kusama grew up in St. Louis, Missouri,^{[5]:264, 266} to father Haruo Kusama, a child psychiatrist, and mother Susan Kusama (née McGuire), an educational psychiatrist.^[6][7] Her father is Japanese and her mother is Caucasian.^[3]

Kusama graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis, Missouri.^[8] In 1990, Kusama received a BFA in Film & TV from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.^[3]

Career

After graduating from NYU, where she won a Mobile Prize for a student film called Sleeping Beauties,^[7] Kusama worked as an editor on documentary films, in production on independent film and music videos, as a nanny, and painting houses.^[9]:312 Through her nanny job she met filmmaker John Sayles and worked as his assistant for three years while he was making the film, Lone Star, as well as the development of his films Men with Guns and Limbo.^[10] While working for Sayles, she continued to write screenplays. In 1992, Kusama started boxing at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, training with Hector Roca.^[2][7] She began collecting ideas for Girlfight, but didn't start writing it until two years later.^{[9]:314–315[11]}

At age 27, Kusama wrote and directed her debut feature, Girlfight. It took two years to find financing for the film, reportedly due to her insistence that the main character be a Latina rather than allowing the film to become a vehicle for a well-known white actress.^[2][3] After financing fell through shortly before shooting began, Girlfight was fully financed by film-maker John Sayles, for whom she worked as an assistant at the time and who served as a mentor.^[3][9]:309 The film was released in 2000 and won the Director's Prize and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival. The independent feature film with a budget of around US$1 million was critically well received. However, it brought in only US$1,667,000, which was considered a poor return; it has since become a classic example of theSundance Effect.^[12]

In 2005, Kusama directed her second film, Æon Flux, a Paramount Pictures studio production that starred Charlize Theron and had a budget of US$62,000,000. The film had been ushered through production by Paramount studio chief Sherry Lansing but during post-production Lansing left, which resulted in the film being recut and reworked, with significant changes from Kusama's original vision. Following on this experience, Kusama said that she would never again work on a film where she doesn't have control of the final cut.^[10] Its worldwide gross was estimated at around US$52,000,000.^[13]

In 2009, Kusama directed the film Jennifer's Body, which was written by Diablo Cody.^[14] The film grossed approximately US$31,000,000 and was produced with a budget of around US$16,000,000.^[15]

In 2015, Kusama directed The Invitation, a horror movie written by Kusama's husband Phil Hay and his writing partner, Matt Manfredi and starring Logan Marshall-Green.^[16] The film was funded by a film consortium called Gamechanger Films who fund films directed by women.^[17] The film premiered at the 2015 SXSW Festival to great acclaim.^[18] The film was acquired by Drafthouse Films for distribution.^[19]

Part of the movie's inspiration is based on the experiences of loss that Kusama, Hay, and Manfredi had. Kusama's brother, Kevin, died when she was young, as did a close friend in New York. The film was shot in sequence, cost US$1 million, and was shot in 20 days in Los Angeles.^[3]

Starting in 2015, Kusama began working regularly in TV as a director on shows like Halt and Catch Fire, Casual, and Billions. Kusama is now slated to direct the upcoming adaptation of Breed, an adult horror novel by Scott Spencer under the pen name Chase Novak. The film will again be produced and written by Kusama's husband Phil Hay and his partner Matt Manfredi.^[20]

Personal life

Kusama married screenwriter Phil Hay in October 2006. They have a son. Although they had known each other since meeting at Sundance when Girlfight premiered in 2000, it wasn't until they worked together on Æon Flux that they began dating.^[3]

Filmography

Film

• 1991: Sleeping Beauties (short)
• 2000: Girlfight, also screenplay
• 2005: Æon Flux
• 2009: Jennifer's Body
• 2015: The Invitation

TV

• 2007: The L Word, episode: "Little Boy Blue"
• 2015: Chicago Fire, episode: "Forgiving, Relentless, Unconditional"
• 2015: Halt and Catch Fire, episodes: "High Plains Hardware", "Working for the Clampdown" and "The Threshold"
• 2015: The Man in the High Castle, episode: "End of the World"
• 2016: Casual, episodes: "Such Good Friends" and "Big Green Egg"
• 2016: Billions, episode: "Quality of Life"

Awards

References

Further reading

• Gordon, Bette (Fall 2000). "Karyn Kusama". BOMB Magazine. 73. 
• Baker, Aaron (September 2000). "A new combination: Women and the boxing film: An interview with Karyn Kusama". Cineaste. 25 (4): 22–26. ISSN 0009-7004. Retrieved 10 April 2016. 
• Figgis, Mike (2000). "Karyn Kusama". In Lippy, Tod; Boorman, John; Donohue, Walter. Projections 11: New York Film-Makers on New York Film-Making. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20591-2. OCLC 45625833. 
• Horowitz, Josh (2006). "Karyn Kusama". The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker: 20 Conversations with the New Generation of Filmmakers. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-452-28681-8. OCLC 475147506. 
• Rybicky, Dan (2008). "Chapter 13: "And Maybe There Is a Way to Give Hollywood the Kick in the Ass That It Needs: An Interview with Karyn Kusama". In Bernardi, Daniel. Filming Difference: Actors, Directors, Producers, and Writers on Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Film. University of Texas Press. pp. 263–288. ISBN 978-0-292-71923-1. OCLC 488626749. 

External links

• Karyn Kusama at the Internet Movie Database