Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Stephens Rosenthal.
Jane, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I’ve always been an artist as long as I can remember. I was very shy (am!) and feel extraordinarily deeply and art was always a great way to express how I was feeling or putting words to feelings I couldn’t actually physically say. I also grew up surrounded by movies and books and art. When I was about four years old, I caused a scandal in kindergarten when parents started coming up to Mom saying, “Cory says Jane can read” “Cameron says Jane can read” “Rachel said Jane can read how did you do it!” Then she discovered me in the corner with a bunch of children rapt at my feet “reading” from a book… I was completely making the story up but was clearly very convincing. Then I started writing my own short stories, always about animals dressed in clothing and doing human things… Then when I was 14, I listened to David Bowie’s Hunky Dory and the world changed. I began to write poetry…. I dabbled a little in acting but at 18 swore off the movie business (coming from Los Angeles and a family of filmmakers this was obviously the last thing I wanted to do).
But as they say about LA natives, you can try to leave Los Angeles but… I came back in my early twenties and began to write a few little pieces but didn’t realize I might actually be able to direct until I worked with Yuval Sharon writing (and acting) the LA Opera Hopscotch which took place all over the city and in moving cars. He made it look so effortless, and I thought, if Yuval can do this, I can surely make a 15-minute film. I wrote a piece called No One Ever Said They Wanted To Be A Heroin Addict When They Grew Up about a woman struggling with sobriety and thought I would just act in it but quickly realized if I wanted to make it the way I saw it, I would have to direct it. And I fell in love. Film for me has always been a savior and salve as a lover of it, and it has been incredible to realize I could also help create it. (Plus, it links everything I love, poetry, photography, music, humans, the way a body moves (or doesn’t) through the world… All those in-between moments that make up our lives, the way a hand touches a wrist, a glance, the opening of a mouth ect.)
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am such a huge lover of life. I am obsessed with it and obsessed with the physical living of it. I am obsessed with the weather (my friends will often tease me sending my text messages saying “I’ve gone to the market, it’s October and it is fall #janepoem.) I am obsessed with trying to make meaning. How we all view different things differently, the experiences that shape us, how one grows up and becomes, one’s sexuality, the pain and pleasure of being human. Connection. All of my art revolves around this – my poetry, and certainly my films. Though I am a filmmaker now (or I feel like I can officially call myself a director finally after graduating from the American Film Institute this summer with a degree in directing) I still think of myself as a poet first. I like to get to the bones and marrow of things, I like to get underneath and into the feelings. I want to know why you are the way you are, what your relationship with your parents is like, if you believe in God, what you’ve had for breakfast. And I hope this shows up in my work. This love and care of the living. I hope people see themselves in my work. I find living extraordinary but also very lonely and at times a bit painful and I know the art that has saved me and made me feel not alone has been the art that strips itself bare so that I can say, “wait I’ve felt that too!” (And when I say art, I mean everything – painting, photography, collage, film, music.)
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
I think it’s an amazing time to be an artist because art has suddenly become so much more accessible with the internet. The parameters around what makes an art piece an art piece has shifted and changed. I think Instagram has been an amazing tool for getting work out that people might not otherwise see. Unfortunately, the world has turned upside down now with the pandemic it is hard to know what anything is going to look like, but people are still creating! There are art shows happening in garages that you can drive through, there are outdoor movie theaters popping up, there are Zoom readings! I think Los Angeles is beginning to really come into its own as a city that is filled with art and artists and that is really exciting. For a while, it was considered a wasteland but we have incredible galleries and tiny theaters and independent movie theaters, which I am hoping will all be here still when we can go out safely again! I miss slipping off to a matinee and knowing that I will be completely immersed and unreachable for about two glorious hours so badly!
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am so excited about this question! I just completed my degree at the American Film Institute and my thesis film that I wrote and directed called The Hideaway has just begun its festival run and will be playing first at Hollyshorts film festival this November. It’s about a young girl on the edge of adulthood and her discovery of womanhood – all its fears, and complications, and desire, and strength. It stars EVee White and Scottie Thompson and I am so excited by their performances I can’t wait for the world to see it! I have a few poems that have been published that you can find on my website www.janestephensrosenthal.com and I am putting a book together now, but will occasionally post snippets on the Instagram @janestephensrose (I am a big fan of Morning Pages) Following artists at the beginning of their careers is always essential and right now a lot of this is digital! I also edited a magazine in the mid-2000s with Josh Raab called TheNewerYork which was very fun and experimental, I have a few extras lying around if anyone is interested!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.janestephensrosenthal.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janestephensrose/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jane.rosenthal.39/
Making “Nellie” with DP Amanda Ferrareses
On the set of The Hideaway with Marcus Doyle and EVee White Photography by Thomas Choi
With DP Jo Jo Lam on the set of The Hideaway photography by Thomas Choi.
For CD a poem for CD Wright by Jane Stephens Rosenthal
Jane and EVee White on the set of The Hideaway.
A poem in process.
Film stilll from Jane’s directorial debut that she wrote and starred in No One Ever Said
Image Credit:
Bartholomew Cooke, Thomas Choi
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