Larysa Kondracki

Last updated
Larysa Kondracki
Larysa Kondracki.jpg
Born
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater McGill University
Columbia University
Occupation(s)producer, director, screenwriter

Larysa Kondracki is a Canadian producer, director and screenwriter. [1] [2] Her debut feature film, The Whistleblower , was released in 2011 and received nominations for six Genies at the 32nd Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. [3] She has received international accolades for reporting on the stories of victims of trafficking in the former Yugoslavia. [4]

Contents

Life

Kondracki is originally from Toronto, born into a Ukrainian-Canadian family; she studied English literature and theatre at McGill University, graduating in 1999. [5] She later completed a second BA in film directing at Columbia University, graduating in 2001. [6] [7] [8] She also studied at the MFA in film program at Columbia University School of the Arts until 2006. [9]

Based in Los Angeles, Kondracki has written projects for Focus Features, HBO Films, Participant Media, and Showtime Entertainment, among others. [6]

Work

Kondracki's career kicked off with her breakout short film, "Viko," about a seventeen-year-old boy in Yugoslavia, who, struggling to earn money for a new life with his girlfriend, finds himself tangled in a web of sex trafficking. "Viko"'s success in the film festival circuit brought Kondracki long success as a director and storyteller. [10] [11]

Kondracki's debut feature film, The Whistleblower, is a based-on-truth crime drama about Kathryn Bolkovac, "who, while working in Bosnia with a private US military contractor under UN jurisdiction, uncovered sex-slavery rings, implicating local police, a number of her colleagues and other foreign nationals.” [12] Kondracki said to Indie Wire, about the crime thriller storytelling style she chose: "When you put together the words Bosnia, peacekeepers and sex-trafficking, people assume it’s going to be either 'educational' or 'important,' in other words: medicinal. But the truth is, Kathy’s story was incredible. It brought to mind my favorite political thrillers, and I felt it lent itself to that kind of telling.” [13]

Kondracki spoke about her effort to portray the "exhaustion" of inflicting violence in an interview with FF2 Media's Jan Huttner. "In some of the reviews we've gotten, they say that The Whistleblower is too black and white, and it's just evil, and this and that. But I don't see it as a black and white thing: there are good women and bad men, and good men and bad women, and we did that on purpose because it isn't so black and white.” [14]

The Whistleblower was nominated for six Genie Awards, and nominated for major awards at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [10] It signaled Kondracki's role as an activist and advocate for women. "I think the movie has a relevance beyond just making one think," said Kondracki to The Coast Halifax. "I plan to be a large pest.” [12]

Kondracki has since directed and produced episodes of many television shows, among them The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, Rogue, The Americans, and Graceland. [15] [16]

In 2015, Nimbus publishing announced that the film rights for the book Haunted Girl: Esther Cox and the Great Amherst Mystery by Laurie Glenn Norris had been sold to a project led by Kondracki. [17]

In 2018, Kondracki signed a First Look television deal with Amazon. Kondracki directed episodes of the TV series Picnic at Hanging Rock, which involved her in an Australian nationalist debate about direction for the iconic Australian story. [18] [19]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleDirectorWriterNotes
2009VikoYesYesShort film
2010 The Whistleblower YesYes

Television

YearTitleNotes
2015 The Americans Season 3, Episode 10: "Stingers"
Better Call Saul 2 episodes
The Walking Dead Season 5, Episode 11: "The Distance"
Reign Season 2, Episode 12: "Banished"
2014–2015 Halt and Catch Fire 2 episodes
2014 The Divide Season 1, Episode 8: "To Whom Evil Is Done"
Graceland Season 2, Episode 10: "The Head of the Pig"
2013–2014 Covert Affairs 3 episodes
Rogue 6 episodes
2013 Copper 7 episode
Also executive producer (13 episodes)
2016 Gotham Season 2, Episode 19: "Azrael"
2017 Legion Season 1, Episode 4: "Chapter 4"
2018 Picnic at Hanging Rock 3 episodes, showrunner [20]
2019 The Fix Season 1, Episode 1: "Pilot"
2022 Power Book IV: Force Season 1, Episode 1: "A Short Fuse and a Long Term Memory"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Weir</span> Australian film director (born 1944)

Peter Lindsay Weir is an Australian retired film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations, ultimately being awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 2022 for his lifetime achievement career.

<i>Picnic at Hanging Rock</i> (novel) 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian historical fiction novel by Joan Lindsay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mira Nair</span> Indian-American filmmaker

Mira Nair is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion–winning Monsoon Wedding, and Salaam Bombay!, which received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia University School of General Studies</span> Undergraduate school of Columbia University in New York City

The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college and one of the undergraduate colleges of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights, New York City. GS is known primarily for its traditional B.A. program for non-traditional students. GS students make up almost 30% of the Columbia undergraduate population.

Kasi Lemmons is an American film director, screenwriter, and actress. She made her directorial debut with Eve's Bayou (1997), followed by Talk to Me (2007), Black Nativity (2013), Harriet (2019), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). She also directed the Netflix limited series Self Made (2020), and an episode of ABC's Women of the Movement (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris</span> Team of American film and music video directors

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are a duo of American directors and producers for films and music videos. They started their career directing videos for such artists as Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M. and The Smashing Pumpkins. Together they directed the films Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Ruby Sparks (2012), and Battle of the Sexes (2017). They also directed the Netflix comedy series Living with Yourself (2019) and episodes of the Hulu series Fleishman Is In Trouble (2022).

Ivy Meeropol is a director and producer of documentaries for film and television, known for Indian Point and Heir to an Execution. She is the daughter of Michael Meeropol and Ann Karus Meeropol and granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and adoptive granddaughter of Abel Meeropol, author of "Strange Fruit" and "The House I Live In". A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she served as a legislative aide to Congressman Harry Johnston (D-Florida).

<i>Picnic at Hanging Rock</i> (film) 1975 film by Peter Weir

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film directed by Peter Weir and based on the 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. Cliff Green adapted the novel into a screenplay. The film stars Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Vivean Gray and Jacki Weaver. The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine's Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.

Helen Morse is an English-born Australian actress who has appeared in films, on television and on stage. She won the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1976 film Caddie, and starred in the 1981 miniseries A Town Like Alice. Her other film appearances include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Agatha (1979), Far East (1982) and The Eye of the Storm (2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Dormer</span> British actress (born 1982)

Natalie Dormer is an English actress. Her accolades include winning an Empire Award, and receiving nominations for a Critics' Choice Award, two Gemini Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The 28th Genie Awards were held on March 3, 2008 to honour films released in 2007. The ceremony was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The show was broadcast on E! and Independent Film Channel and hosted by Sandra Oh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aviva Kempner</span> American filmmaker (born 1946)

Aviva Kempner is a German-born American filmmaker. Her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and focus on the untold stories of Jewish people. She is most well known for The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Shelton</span> American filmmaker (1965–2020)

Lynn Shelton was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as Humpday and Your Sister's Sister. She was associated with the mumblecore genre.

Some of the personnel of the United Nations peacekeeping are accused of committing sexual abuse in general and of child sexual abuse in particular. An Associated Press (AP) investigation revealed in 2017 that more than 100 United Nations (UN) peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti over a 10-year period and none were ever jailed. The report further found that over the previous 12 years, there had been almost 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other UN personnel around the world. AP found the abuse to be much greater than originally thought. After the AP report, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, urged all countries to hold UN peacekeepers accountable for any sexual abuse and exploitation. As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves. The UN's department of peacekeeping in New York acknowledged at that time that "peacekeepers have come to be seen as part of the problem in trafficking rather than the solution".

<i>The Whistleblower</i> 2010 Canadian-German thriller film directed by Larysa Kondracki

The Whistleblower is a 2010 Canadian biographical drama film directed by Larysa Kondracki and starring Rachel Weisz. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who was recruited as a United Nations peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. While there, she discovered a Bosnian sex trafficking ring serving and facilitated by DynCorp employees, with international peacekeepers looking the other way. Bolkovac was fired and forced out of the country after attempting to shut down the ring. She took the story to BBC News in the UK and won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against DynCorp.

Kathryn Bolkovac is a human rights advocate, consultant, former police investigator with the Lincoln Police Department, and former monitor with United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. Her story was shown in the film The Whistleblower and told in the nonfiction book, The Whistleblower.

Eilis Kirwan is an Irish film director and screenwriter who was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 2010 film The Whistleblower along with Larysa Kondracki. Born in Dublin, in 1972, Kirwan also won an Ardmore Studios Award at the 2004 Kerry Film Festival and won the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh Short Film Award for Best First Short both for 2004's Nostradamus and Me. She studied English and History at University College Dublin then co-founded Doubletake Theatre Company where she wrote and produced original plays.

Pamela Katz is an American screenwriter and novelist best known for her collaborations with director Margarethe von Trotta, including Rosenstrasse and Hannah Arendt.

<i>Picnic at Hanging Rock</i> (TV series) 2018 Australian mystery television series

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian mystery romantic drama television series that premiered on Foxtel's Showcase on 6 May 2018. The series was adapted from Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel of the same name about a group of schoolgirls who, while on an outing to Hanging Rock, mysteriously disappear. The score won the Screen Music Award for Best Music for a Television Series.

Pamela Gray is an American screenwriter.

References

  1. ↑ Exclusive Interview With Larysa Kondracki On The Whistleblower «The Whistleblower»
  2. ↑ Smith, Janet (August 17, 2011). "Whistleblow director Larysa Kondracki aims for change". The Georgia Straight .
  3. ↑ "Cafe de flore, A Dangerous Method lead the field for Genie Awards". PlayBack, January 17, 2012.
  4. ↑ Todres, Jonathan (20 January 2016). "Movies and myths about human trafficking". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  5. ↑ "Blowing the whistle on sex trafficking". mcgillnews.mcgill.ca. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  6. 1 2 Van Kann, Felix (March 24, 2020). "Alumna Larysa Kondracki '01 GS Executive Produces Them: Covenant". Columbia School of the Arts. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Alumna Larysa Kondracki '01 (GS) executive produces 'Them: Covenant'". Columbia - School of the Arts. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  8. ↑ "A New Lens: Celebrating GS Alumnae in Film and Television | School of General Studies". gs.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  9. ↑ "FILM_Larysa Kondracki '01 (GS) to Direct Mini-Series, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'". Columbia - School of the Arts. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  10. 1 2 "Larysa Kondracki". BBC America. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  11. ↑ Viko (2009) - IMDb , retrieved 2020-04-20
  12. 1 2 Knox, Carsten. "The Whistleblower and Larysa Kondracki". The Coast Halifax. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  13. ↑ Smith, Nigel M.; Smith, Nigel M. (2011-08-02). "IN HER OWN WORDS | Director Larysa Kondracki Shares an Exclusive Scene from "The Whistleblower"". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  14. ↑ Huttner, Jan (August 10, 2011). "Jan & Rich Chat With Larysa Kondracki" (PDF). FF2 Media. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  15. ↑ Collins, Sean T. (April 5, 2016). "'Better Call Saul' 2×08 Recap: Masterpiece Theater". New York Observer .
  16. ↑ "Larysa Kondracki". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  17. ↑ "Great Amherst Mystery on the big screen". www.saltwire.com. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  18. ↑ Otterson, Joe (2018-07-26). "'Picnic at Hanging Rock' Showrunner Larysa Kondracki Sets First-Look Deal at Amazon". Variety. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  19. ↑ "Canadian Director Caught Up in Screen Australia Nationalism Storm". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  20. ↑ Gilbert, Sophie (29 May 2018). "The Enduring Mystery of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'". The Atlantic . Atlantic Media.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.