Abigail Zealey Bess has worked extensively in New York’s film and theatre community as a director and filmmaker. With a résumé that features work with the legendary Sidney Lumet, John Leguizamo, Kevin Smith, Matt LeBlanc, Frank Whaley and many others, her work has crossed boundaries and platforms for many years as an independent director and producer. She has been directing theatre, specializing in new work since she arrived on these shores and established Weird Sisters, as a theatrical entity in 1997. Under the auspices of her company she has developed projects in collaboration with many writers both established and newly emerging on the New York scene. She subsequently directed and produced her debut film, the award winning baseball trilogy, Play Ball! (Fanfare for A Common Man, Random Acts of Intimacy, Caught in Time) that screened throughout the globe including the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Director Fortnight, and at over 40 USA festivals including New York, Newport, Seattle and Savannah. In addition to garnering Best Film at seven USA festivals, she was awarded 1st Prize for Best Short Film by woman director at the LA Women In Film Competition. The panel of judges included Jamie Lee Curtis, Gale Ann Hurd, Amy Heckerling, Susan Seidelman, Allison Janney, Andie Macdowell and Catherine Wyler. As a long-standing member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre based in New York, one of the leading developmental theatres of new plays in the USA, she has directed and produced numerous new works. Other NY theatres where she has directed include The Foundry Theatre, Ohio Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Here and internationally the Edinburgh Festival, the Young Vic, the Strand Theatre, London. She is no stranger to the film and television set and has extensive knowledge and experience working as a location manager in feature film, TV and commercials Some of her work includes; Julian Farino, The Oranges, Forty HBO Pilot, Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, Howl, Sony FX TV series, Damages, Sidney Lumet, 100 Centre Street, Find Me Guilty, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Kevin Smith’s Silent Jay and Bob Strikes Back, Tom Fontana’s Warner Brothers TV series, The Bedford Diaries, and M.O.N.Y. NBC Pilot directed by Spike Lee. Most recently as Line Producer she worked on the NY segment of Valerie Donzellie’s Main Dans La Main, produced in association by Forensic Films, USA and Rectangle Productions in France. She continues to head Weird Sisters developing theatrical ventures and feature film projects that promote and support prolific women artists and writers giving voice to new and exciting work. Latest Directing Projects include the ongoing webisode series with Amy Staats, entitled Here’s what I Like.….and Now I’ll tell you Why (LA Comedy Shorts 2010, 2011, Trimedia Film Festival 2011, Garden State Film Festival, Winter Film Awards, Brooklyn Girl Film Festival, Chashama Film Festival) Current Projects include Mary & Louise by Amy Staats, now in Post Production, a black and white film that pays tribute to Mary Pickford and Louise Brooks and the upcoming Icarus Stops For Breakfast by Holli Harmes, a magical love story adapted from the short story, Eating by Rick Bass, set in a landscape overwhelmed by nature which is slated to go into production Summer 2013. Projects in development include a live animation feature length script, 7 Variations on the Same Lover by Crystal Skillman and Little Girls, Big Trouble, a high jinx comedy feature, by Leslie Brockett. www.weirdsistersfilms.com