Out of State-A Gothic Romance

Victoria Bugbee is an award winning playwright known for her experimental performance and on-site audience immersive work. At the same time, she pursued work in video and film as a special projects producer. At B Productions she produced videos for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Oscar de la Renta, Betsey Johnson, Videowalls for GQ, and TV Specials for CBS and STARZ.

After leaving B Productions, Bugbee focused on her first feature film "Out of State:A Gothic Romance," a dramatic comedy co-written with her distant cousin, the late Charles Bugbee.

To date, "Out of State A Gothic Romance" has won "Audience Choice Award YoFIFest Yonkers Film Festival 11, NY, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Background Music (Score) 6th Moonwhite Films International Film Fest in Mumbai, India Best Feature Film, European Cinematography Award; Best First Time Director, Vancouver Arthouse Film Festival; Best Drama, Best Director & Best Acting Ensemble, World Indie Film Festival, Abruzzo, Italy; Best Dramatic Comedy, Best American Film & Best First Time Director at 8 & Halfilm Awards in Rome, Italy; Finalist for Best Feature Film Buffalo Roots Film Festival, Rome, Italy; The RED Movie Awards Finalist Best Feature in Reims, France. The film is an Official Selection at The 9th Music Film Festival in Buenos Aires; 11th Yonkers Film Festival, Yonkers, NY; Moonwhite Film International Film Festival in Mumbai India; a semi-finalist at DUMBO Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY; Nominee at Berlin Independent Film Festival, Germany; Honorable Mention at both ANIF Film Festival in Brisbane, Australia and International Hearts and Hearts Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA. It is a Quarter Finalist at Red Fox International Film Festival in Tbilisi,Georgia; Portuguese Lemur International Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal; & Winter Leopard International Film Festival Stockholm, Sweden.

Bugbee self-funded with her husband, George Warren, directed and produced the feature with her Producer Cherie Fortis as well as handled production design. She collaborated with costume designer Kim Druce Sava for the period film set in the early 1990's in Eastern Pennsylvania. Think. "My Cousin Rachel" Meets "The Royal Tenenbaums," dark with a sense of humor.

Bugbee & her team shot 100 scenes in 21 days of "Out of State-A Gothic Romance" before the pandemic. "When I would tell people about the story that focuses on a dysfunctional family of shut-ins, they said no one would understand shut-ins,"said the writer director. "Then the pandemic hit and we edited the film and finished music, sound design and color grading in January 2023. Now the whole world knows what it is like to be isolated and cut off from the real world. It can make you strange."

Before working in New York City, Bugbee made a name for herself by creating three site specific performances that were funded by Atlanta's Bureau of Cultural Affairs. These include "Murder at Le Pavillion Hotel" in the windows of The Javo Gallery, "The Vacation" in an urban parking lot, and "Laundry" at The 10th Street Laundromat. This performance was videotaped by Gerald Jones (Nexus) and the short video "Boxer Shorts" marked her entrance in the world of moving images.

On moving to New York, she worked at Digital Effects, one of the first companies making computer graphics (TRON, Xanadu). She lived with artist George Warren above a fish market in Chinatown and created a series of pastels of Chinatown & fireworks entitled KABOOM. The large mural "Life & Death With Business In Between," became the inspiration for her performance installation in the windows of Benson's Furniture Store in the East Village.

Bugbee made a music video of the performance. With a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Playwriting & Screenwriting she expanded "Life & Death..." into a surreal musical with music by Joe Deihl, who scored "Out of State:A Gothic Romance."

Other projects include a commission by Lincoln Center Out of Doors to created "A Surreal Soap Opera:Toxic Waste Meets Beach Resort," "Confessions of a Baby Slave," "Art Angel," and "The Gas Station Project" staged at Overseas Auto Body Shop.

In between writing, directing and producing avant grade videos and performances, Bugbee married George Warren (Executive Producer of "Out of State") and together they have three children,

Currently, Bugbee is adapting her original play "The Gas Station Project" into a feature film. She and Joe Deihl, her music collaborator, will finish their musical "Life & Death With Business In Between." Based on the life story of Mrs. Carrie Camiso, housemother of Bugbee's tenement building on The Lower Eastside, the musical shifts between reality, the afterlife and past lives.