In this episode, we explore the inner world of the first-time director on a feature film with guest Maria Gabriela Cardenas. She shares her experience with casting, funding, and dealing with challenges on set.
Maria Gabriela Cardenas is a director, producer, and writer. Her directorial debut “A Dark Foe”, a psychological thriller garnered twenty awards (including Best Director and Best Feature Film at The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA) and sixteen nominations. Distributed by Vertical Entertainment and the film had a limited theatrical. Cardenas has directed various music videos and short films, including "The Grand Guignol" a short film that won two awards for Best Actor and Best Actress at The California Women Film Festival. She has directed projects featuring talented artists, such as Academy Award nominee Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, The Green Mile), Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, Hellboy), Bill Bellamy (How to Be A Player), Glenn Morshower (24, Transformers: Dark of The Moon), Beverly Todd (Crash, The Bucket List), Jon Lindstrom (General Hospital, True Detective), Julie Gonzalo (Supergirl, A Cinderella Story), Sound Designer Paul Ratazjack ( The Fighter, A Haunted House), Composer Tim Jones (Chuck, Thor: Ragnarok) and Special Makeup, Prosthetic Effects Vincent J. Guastini (Requiem for A Dream, The Last of The Mohicans) and producer Amy Williams (Mothers and Daughters & Rock, Papers, Scissors). As a devoted fan of the film noir and thriller genres, Cardenas and her father, Oscar Cardenas, established a film production company, Path of Thorns Entertainment (TM). Maria Gabriela Cardenas has two other feature films in development, The Man With the Lion Face and The Bus, that she will direct and was selected to participate in the Blackmagic Collective Future of Women of TV Initiative of 2023. www.mariagabrielacardenas.com
