 Profile
| A multifaceted actress, director, and writer, Laurel Hunter produces outstanding work for stage, screen, and print publications. Member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Laurel Hunter has appeared in minor roles in wide release and independent features. Laurel Hunter also performs the role of Mary in the film Something Better, which she also wrote, co-directed, produced, and edited.
As creator of the acclaimed 2002 movie Something Better, Laurel Hunter weaved a combination of character study and real-life experiences into a thought-provoking and entertaining tragic comedy. In a directorial collaboration with filmmaker and playwright J.P. Allen, Laurel Hunter tells the story of Sam, a drug addict, alcoholic, and small-time criminal with dreams of becoming an art dealer, but who must first shake off the negative influences of his brother, wife, and ultimately, himself. After a privately held premiere screening of Something Better in 2002 at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, Laurel Hunter took her production through the film festival circuit with appearances at the 2003 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, the 2004 Breckenridge Film Festival, and the 2004 Golden Film Festival. The Berkeley Video and Film Festival honored Laurel Hunter and Something Better with its Best of Festival Award, and the Golden Film Festival gave Laurel Hunter awards for Best Director and Best Feature. In addition, Laurel Hunter’s principal actress in Something Better, Kim Ataide, won Best Actress from the Golden Film Festival.
Noted film festival director Michael Trent compared Laurel Hunter’s writing to that of Tennessee Williams. Choosing her home base of San Francisco as primary filming location, Laurel Hunter and J.P. Allen shot nearly the entire film in their apartment, effectively capturing an unforgiving and claustrophobic atmosphere. Based on Laurel Hunter’s own interactions with intriguing characters in the city and an incident in which her apartment was burglarized, Something Better serves as a living testament to her spirit and imagination. The film is dedicated to the Memory of Steve Kang who perished in a car accident shortly after the film’s shooting. Something Better would have been his debut feature as Director of Photography.
|
|
