Beach-O

Karen Lawler is a filmmaker, producer, and artist. She is currently the Director of Production of Hornet, a commercial production company and design studio, and has produced over 50 commercials for major brands. Her films have been presented at many international festivals and venues including the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, the Split Film Festival in Croatia, the Darklight Festival in Dublin, the Anchorage International Film Festival and Reel Women International Film Festival. Her short, Dress Up, won Best Narrative in the DIGIt 2006 and was released by Cinequest in November 2006. Her multimedia installations have been presented at performance venues including the Interferences Biennale, the Kitchen and the Apollo in New York and Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France. She also founded EXchange, a short film showcase that traveled from Accra, Ghana to Guadalajara, Mexico, going to a total of twelve cities in ten countries from 1999 to 2004.

Leah Smith is a filmmaker based in Austin, TX. With a foundation in experimental filmmaking, she has created rhythmic live tion pieces like “Jump” (super 8), and also co-wrote and directed the music centric short “Beach-O” (16mm). She is the co-author of the book Dirt Cheap, Real Good: A Highway Guide to Thrift Stores in the Washington DC Area (2004 Capital Books). After moving to Austin in 2005, Leah opened a shop and gallery space, called The Opera House, where she promoted and contributed to the local underground art and music scenes. Nowadays she has returned to her roots in filmmaking, striving to make films cheaply that she can create in her living room. She uses stop-motion animation techniques as seen in “Quilt” and “Cat Picnic/Flower Picnic”. Her future plans include alter ego Infinite Fontaine’s (Instagram @Infinite_fontaine) comedic experiments with paper cut-out animation and to eventually develop a short animated series.