Jennifer Elster
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Elster is a film director, producer, writer, actress and an executive of The Development Productions, an independent film and television production company.
Elster's current feature film series “experience” is entitled BEING, the first is …In the Woods, where reality meets the unknown. In the Huffington Post it is described as “a mysterious, existential film journey: a walk into the unknown. The experience is a seduction into our own existence.” The cast of actors, musicians, activists, other personalities and thinkers includingGale Harold
Terrence Howard
, Dave Matthews
, Rufus Wainwright
, Will Shortz
, Liya Kebede
, Questlove, Famke Janssen
, Moby
, Debra Winger
, Jorgen Leth, Rosie Perez
, and Alan Cumming
amongst others, were not told anything before signing onto the project. Yoko Ono
contributed first time original vocalizations for a feature film, which are scored throughout. An interactive online experience ITWPATHWAY, a blog, a trailer, “pieces”, and online clues were released during post production (a storytelling puzzle of multimedia interactivity).
Having moved around a bit as a young child, she lived from the age of 4 to 6 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania among the Amish (as a non-Amish) where horse and buggies were a norm. During these formative years of her life, she became deeply connected to nature and the freedom in it.
Elster moved back to New York City, where she began second grade. She attended Catholic School for junior High School where she opted to not make her communion, unable to embrace organized religion. Her time at Catholic School was marked by Elster standing up against racism towards an African American student. She later attended Brandies, her district’s public school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
She went on to study at NYU where she majored in psychology and writing. Though engrossed in writing, Elster had an inspired curiosity in studying film, which she began towards the end of her studies at NYU. After graduating, she furthered her studies in film beyond NYU.
, Trent Reznor
/NIN
, Kate Winslet
, Chloe Sevigny
, Fiona Apple
, Isabella Rossellini
, Gwyneth Paltrow
, Moby, Liv Tyler
, Anthony Kiedis
, Timbaland
, Sonic Youth
, Chemical Brothers, Rob Zombie
and Garbage
. Her work appeared on covers of such magazines as Rolling Stone
, The Face
, Time
, Big, and Dazed and Confused
. Elster also worked on print campaigns for companies including Levi’s, MTV, Coke, Adidas, Target, Pepsi, Kodak, Mastercard, Ray Ban, Pepe Jeans, Bacardi, ESPN, Footlocker, Courvoisier and Fila. For MTV2
, she produced and directed such commercials as Fingered and Head in the Sidewalk.
Though successful in her career as a fashion stylist, in an interview with Flaunt Magazine Elster eluded it wasn’t enough, remarking, “‘I would be mentally rewriting the character’s back story, cramming too much detail into the visuals.’” With Film Festival Today she shared, “‘I couldn’t take the thought of being on another shoot and not telling the stories I had pent up inside of me. So, finding a balance, I worked with the band Garbage, which was steady and lucrative for over a year and wrote Particles of Truth
during every spare second. When I was through, I made a couple of shorts, then the feature. I was determined.’”
Restless, she went back to school for “intensive film training” and then launched the two experimental short films she wrote and directed, Ill Will and Dirty that premiered at the LA Film Festival in 2001 and won her notice. From there she made her first feature film, Particles of Truth, which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in, opposite actor Gale Harold
. Receiving critical acclaim, the film made its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003, and continued its success at such festivals as IFP/LA, Woodstock, Fort Lauderdale, Santa Barbara, winning the Jury Award for best feature at the Austin Film Festival and HD Fest. The LA Times called it “an emotional seesaw ride” with images “so sharp and cut so deep; it’s as if writer-producer-director and co-star Jennifer Elster made them with a scalpel,” and a review from Variety read, “NY Indie airily pulls off what Hollywood mightily strives for—a believable romantic comedy.” Newsday said of Elster, “[she] represents the fresh energy crucial to the vitality of artistic communities.” Particles of Truth made its theatrical debut in New York City and also played on the Sundance Channel in a series entitled New Voices.
For the past several years, Elster has been engrossed in a masterwork—the feature film series entitled BEING, her most innovative project to date. Drawn to exploring the unknown, a risk taker and boundary pusher by nature, Elster’s work illustrates the “unruly excursions” into the recesses of the mind. Elster said to the Huffington Post, “…In the Woods definitely errs on the side of danger, existing outside the bounds of how we are expected to behave.” This tendency towards illuminating the mysteries of the internal world is exemplified in Elster’s film series, in which she plays with and pushes the parameters of filmmaking. The first film of the series, …In the Woods, is “non-formulaic” in its composition— an “unusual collection of disparate moments woven together to create unified and emotionally charged narratives while various plots unfold.” The delivery, as said by Elster, is to be as “unconventional” in its nature, with material “unleashed” in episodic segments. Elster began releasing an online trail of “clues,” pieces and clips she said that “provoke mental and emotional game progression” for …In the Woods. Elster also released an interactive online experience ITWPATHWAY, a blog, and a trailer for …In the Woods during post production.
, Jorgen Leth, Kent Cullers
, Marlo Thomas
, Will Shortz, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, Famke Janssen, Aimee Mullins
, Bob Mankoff, Karen Black
, Liya Kebede, Gale Harold, Glenn O’Brien, Clay Matthewman, Alan Cumming, Felicia Milewicz, Julian Schlossberg
, and Marie Elster. Yoko Ono contributed first time original vocalizations for a feature film, scored throughout.
Into the Cave/aka itc:mayhem is the second feature of BEING and is a film that goes further “off the spectrum and into the recesses,” featuring Terrence Howard, Jorgen Leth, Kent Cullers and Mouchette Bell.
Into the Studio/aka its: balancing beam, the last feature of the trilogy, is a “dark playful look at human suffering and the tendency to go inward that switches back and forth from fiction to non-fiction; blurring all lines.” The cast features Karen Black, Jorgen Leth, Mouchette Bell, Angelique Mermet and Jennifer Elster.
Elster's current feature film series “experience” is entitled BEING, the first is …In the Woods, where reality meets the unknown. In the Huffington Post it is described as “a mysterious, existential film journey: a walk into the unknown. The experience is a seduction into our own existence.” The cast of actors, musicians, activists, other personalities and thinkers includingGale Harold
Gale Harold
Gale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard
Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, which subsequently led to a number of roles in films and high visibility among African American audiences. Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of well-reviewed television...
, Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
, Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
, Will Shortz
Will Shortz
Will Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor, and currently the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.-Early life and education:...
, Liya Kebede
Liya Kebede
Liya Kebede is an Ethiopian model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer and actress who has appeared three times on the cover of US Vogue . According to Forbes, Kebede was eleventh-highest-paid top model in the world in 2007...
, Questlove, Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
, Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
, Jorgen Leth, Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
, and Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
amongst others, were not told anything before signing onto the project. Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
contributed first time original vocalizations for a feature film, which are scored throughout. An interactive online experience ITWPATHWAY, a blog, a trailer, “pieces”, and online clues were released during post production (a storytelling puzzle of multimedia interactivity).
Early Life
Born at New York Hospital to progressive parents, Elster grew up predominantly in NYC.Having moved around a bit as a young child, she lived from the age of 4 to 6 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania among the Amish (as a non-Amish) where horse and buggies were a norm. During these formative years of her life, she became deeply connected to nature and the freedom in it.
Elster moved back to New York City, where she began second grade. She attended Catholic School for junior High School where she opted to not make her communion, unable to embrace organized religion. Her time at Catholic School was marked by Elster standing up against racism towards an African American student. She later attended Brandies, her district’s public school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
She went on to study at NYU where she majored in psychology and writing. Though engrossed in writing, Elster had an inspired curiosity in studying film, which she began towards the end of her studies at NYU. After graduating, she furthered her studies in film beyond NYU.
Career
Elster began her early career as a stylist for other-worldly photo shoots where she “fine tuned her aesthetic”. Known as a forward-thinking conceptualist, she has worked with such artists as David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
/NIN
Nin
Nin may refer to:* Nine Inch Nails, an American industrial rock band* NIN , a Serbian political magazine* NIN , the Sumerian sign for lady* NIN , a human gene* Nion or Nin, a letter in the Ogham alphabet...
, Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
, Chloe Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
, Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success...
, Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...
, Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
, Moby, Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler
Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
, Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis is an American vocalist/lyricist, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his 12th birthday, to Hollywood,...
, Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Chemical Brothers, Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
and Garbage
Garbage (band)
Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...
. Her work appeared on covers of such magazines as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The Face
The Face (magazine)
The Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Big, and Dazed and Confused
Dazed & Confused (magazine)
Dazed & Confused is a British style magazine, that was set up in 1992 and published monthly. Its founding editors were Jefferson Hack and Rankin...
. Elster also worked on print campaigns for companies including Levi’s, MTV, Coke, Adidas, Target, Pepsi, Kodak, Mastercard, Ray Ban, Pepe Jeans, Bacardi, ESPN, Footlocker, Courvoisier and Fila. For MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
, she produced and directed such commercials as Fingered and Head in the Sidewalk.
Though successful in her career as a fashion stylist, in an interview with Flaunt Magazine Elster eluded it wasn’t enough, remarking, “‘I would be mentally rewriting the character’s back story, cramming too much detail into the visuals.’” With Film Festival Today she shared, “‘I couldn’t take the thought of being on another shoot and not telling the stories I had pent up inside of me. So, finding a balance, I worked with the band Garbage, which was steady and lucrative for over a year and wrote Particles of Truth
Particles of Truth
Particles of Truth is a 2003 low-budget independent film directed, written by and starring Jennifer Elster, with Gale Harold. The film was released on July 26, 2005 by Hart Sharp Video...
during every spare second. When I was through, I made a couple of shorts, then the feature. I was determined.’”
Restless, she went back to school for “intensive film training” and then launched the two experimental short films she wrote and directed, Ill Will and Dirty that premiered at the LA Film Festival in 2001 and won her notice. From there she made her first feature film, Particles of Truth, which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in, opposite actor Gale Harold
Gale Harold
Gale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
. Receiving critical acclaim, the film made its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003, and continued its success at such festivals as IFP/LA, Woodstock, Fort Lauderdale, Santa Barbara, winning the Jury Award for best feature at the Austin Film Festival and HD Fest. The LA Times called it “an emotional seesaw ride” with images “so sharp and cut so deep; it’s as if writer-producer-director and co-star Jennifer Elster made them with a scalpel,” and a review from Variety read, “NY Indie airily pulls off what Hollywood mightily strives for—a believable romantic comedy.” Newsday said of Elster, “[she] represents the fresh energy crucial to the vitality of artistic communities.” Particles of Truth made its theatrical debut in New York City and also played on the Sundance Channel in a series entitled New Voices.
For the past several years, Elster has been engrossed in a masterwork—the feature film series entitled BEING, her most innovative project to date. Drawn to exploring the unknown, a risk taker and boundary pusher by nature, Elster’s work illustrates the “unruly excursions” into the recesses of the mind. Elster said to the Huffington Post, “…In the Woods definitely errs on the side of danger, existing outside the bounds of how we are expected to behave.” This tendency towards illuminating the mysteries of the internal world is exemplified in Elster’s film series, in which she plays with and pushes the parameters of filmmaking. The first film of the series, …In the Woods, is “non-formulaic” in its composition— an “unusual collection of disparate moments woven together to create unified and emotionally charged narratives while various plots unfold.” The delivery, as said by Elster, is to be as “unconventional” in its nature, with material “unleashed” in episodic segments. Elster began releasing an online trail of “clues,” pieces and clips she said that “provoke mental and emotional game progression” for …In the Woods. Elster also released an interactive online experience ITWPATHWAY, a blog, and a trailer for …In the Woods during post production.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Credited as | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director Film director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:... |
Writer Screenwriter Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:... |
Producer Film producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The... |
Actor Actor An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity... |
Role | ||
| 2001 | Dirty | — | ||||
| 2001 | Ill Will | — | ||||
| 2003 | Particles of Truth Particles of Truth Particles of Truth is a 2003 low-budget independent film directed, written by and starring Jennifer Elster, with Gale Harold. The film was released on July 26, 2005 by Hart Sharp Video... |
Lilli Black | ||||
| 2005 | Life on the Ledge | — | ||||
| 2012 | In the Woods | — |
Current Projects
…In the Woods/aka itw pathway, an existential film that explores the unknown starring Terrence Howard, Debra Winger, Rosie Perez, Dave Matthews, Moby, Temple GrandinTemple Grandin
Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior...
, Jorgen Leth, Kent Cullers
Kent Cullers
Kent Cullers is an American astronomer, who was a manager of SETI's Project Phoenix. In 2005, he retired from the SETI Institute.Cullers was born 1949 in El Reno, Oklahoma, the son of an oil field engineer. His birth was premature and to save his life he was placed in an incubator filled with pure...
, Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
, Will Shortz, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, Famke Janssen, Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and fashion model best known for her collegiate-level athletic accomplishments, despite a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs....
, Bob Mankoff, Karen Black
Karen Black
Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...
, Liya Kebede, Gale Harold, Glenn O’Brien, Clay Matthewman, Alan Cumming, Felicia Milewicz, Julian Schlossberg
Julian Schlossberg
Julian Schlossberg is an American motion picture, theatre and television producer.- Biography :Following a tour of duty in the United States Army, Schlossberg studied at New York University, completing his degree and graduating with honors...
, and Marie Elster. Yoko Ono contributed first time original vocalizations for a feature film, scored throughout.
Into the Cave/aka itc:mayhem is the second feature of BEING and is a film that goes further “off the spectrum and into the recesses,” featuring Terrence Howard, Jorgen Leth, Kent Cullers and Mouchette Bell.
Into the Studio/aka its: balancing beam, the last feature of the trilogy, is a “dark playful look at human suffering and the tendency to go inward that switches back and forth from fiction to non-fiction; blurring all lines.” The cast features Karen Black, Jorgen Leth, Mouchette Bell, Angelique Mermet and Jennifer Elster.