Meet Amy Geist of Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Geist.

Hi Amy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My first taste of filmmaking was in high school in Dayton, Ohio. A group of us convinced our local business owners to let us film our five-minute epic. I became addicted. But in my hometown, a film community didn’t exist. So I left to find one.

I made a place for myself in the Chicago theater and film community. I worked on over a hundred sets in Commercial, TV, and Feature Film, in front of and behind the camera. I touched every department, gaining respect and understanding for every member of my team. I am so grateful for the powerful women I have met along the way. Through this journey, I re-connected with my love for storytelling. Stories have always been a way to express and communicate our own lived experience. I love that with film, we are literally changing neurons with each point of light on the screen.

I moved to Los Angeles and spent my first few years as a freelance commercial Producer and Production Manager working with such clients as Lenovo (*Telly Award Winning), Disney, Sebastian, Motorola, Marvel, Milani, Bosch, Braun, and Delonghi. I started working in feature film and television work on projects including Blade Runner 2049 (Alcon Entertainment *Academy Award Winning), Little (Universal), The Exorcist (Fox), Alex Inc (ABC), Trees of Peace (Netflix), Bar Fight (IFC Films), #FBF (Mar Vista Entertainment), and Everything’s Fine (Powderkeg Media).

One of my favorite opportunities was when I produced a series called “Fuse” consisting of five short films written and directed by five female filmmakers for Powderkeg Media, a company launched by Paul Feig and Laura Fischer. In 2023, one of the films, Help Me Understand, premiered at Sundance and another film, Upside Down, premiered at Tribeca. One of the things that brings me the most joy as a filmmaker is collaboration. Specifically, uplifting other female filmmakers. This is a credo that has shaped my career as Director as well as Producer. If I rise: we all rise.

Inspired by these projects, in 2023, in the midst of the strike, I connected to my network of filmmakers with the mission of creating something together. From this came the Collision Film Initiative, a weekend produced by and for female filmmakers. We raised nine-thousand dollars to fund the shoot wherein we created four micro-short films in two days. Once the films were complete, we screened them for our community of artists. It was an exercise in generating our own opportunities rather than waiting for them to come to us.

Also, during the 2023 strike, I started taking classes for stand-up and found a new love! Since starting I have won Best in Fest at the Burbank Comedy Festival, gone on tour in Colorado, headlined at the Moab Women’s Festival, performed at the Lab at Hollywood Improv, The Crow, Flappers, The Kookaburra Lounge, and become a Door Girl at The Crow Comedy. I just wrapped up producing my first stand up show: BeCause We Can Comedy Fundraiser. All proceeds go to help a family in Gaza.

Nowadays, film and stand-up are the two loves of my life. I’m grateful to all of the amazing women I’ve met along the way that helped me grow into the person I am today.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road in these industries that are so uncertain. I had an eating disorder for twenty years and had to step away from acting to fully recover. It’s been the single most important thing I’ve done for my life and career. Now I navigate an obsessed industry in a plus-sized body and I’m more able to be my authentic self in both acting and stand-up.

Working in film the past five years has been a challenge for all of us in the industry. It’s been uncertain navigating Covid, the strikes, and an ever-shifting industry. Something I love about working in film and television is we collectively find new ways to thrive and grow as industry through everything. We are constantly growing and evolving as artists and professionals.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I experienced the power of storytelling most viscerally with my short “Dysmorphia” which I wrote and directed. The story of a broken woman desperately trying to hold onto her sense of self through dubious means. The consequences, as they so often are, being her own self-destruction. In creating this film, I revealed my most vulnerable parts; formed by my twenty-year disentanglement from anorexia. The deep, dark loneliness and violence that seem justifiable if only someone will call us beautiful. If only that word would heal us. “Dysmorphia” found it’s home on Alter, the YouTube horror channel run by Gunpowder & Sky.

Through this project, I learned how truly impactful it is to be seen. Over the life of the project, I had so many members of the cast, crew, and audience members tell me their own story. The different pieces of themselves identified in our deeply-flawed heroine, Isabella. Each person met her with compassion and, by proxy, themselves. Fueled by these exchanges, I realized, finally: I can do this. Doing this is a joy and a privilege. And I must keep doing it.

My move into the directing space is empowered by years of experience as a Production Manager and Producer. Those years provide perspective on how to make films in realistic, economical, and innovative ways. I’ve learned first-hand the importance of pre-production, communication, and flexibility. I have also sharpened my skills as a leader. I know how to show up fully, every day, with compassion and vision, because everyone is counting on you.

My goal as a Director is to tell womxn-centered stories. I want to focus on the nuances of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, recovery, body-positivity, and living in a fat body in 2025 and beyond. Shame grows in silence. So let’s get loud. Let’s shout about womxn living complex, messy, unapologetic lives in the bodies they have right now. Those are the narratives that we need and I want to bring them to platforms that reach the widest audience: feature films and television.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Favorite Podcast: “UnFuck Your Brain” with Kara Loewentheil Favorite Books: “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch & “Yes, Please” by Amy Poehler

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amyelizabethgeist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatamygeist/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-geist-a8294444/