Madeline Vail was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to a devout Hoosier and a Cuban dissident. Her first short story was written at the age of ten and was a thrilling narrative that gave all the horrific details of one’s last day under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Her classmates listened with mouth’s agape as Vail described in vivid detail children grasping onto their mother’s aprons as they choked on smoke and how prostitutes and pillars of society alike were caught by the relentlessly rolling molten lava.
Vail went on to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Florida and married her college sweetheart, international award winning, Los Angeles based contemporary artist Edward Walton Wilcox. Vail spent the next two and a half decades managing Wilcox’s career, working on and off as a professional actress, and raising their three children, Patience, Temperance and Serenity - the namesake of her production company, Three Virtues Films.
Crimson Cuffs is Vail's first film: a six minute thriller, written, produced and directed by Vail that is currently being introduced to the festival world.