Savanah Leaf

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Savanah Leaf (born 24 November 1993) is a British-American film director and video artist. [1] [2] Earth Mama , her BAFTA-winning debut feature length film, was produced by A24 and Film4, and premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. [3] Her directorial work includes the notable single-channel video run which first exhibited at Hauser & Wirth from June 24, 2023 until August 30, 2023. Other work also includes music videos for Gary Clark, Jr.'s single This Land (Grammy Award for Best Music Video nominee). [4]

Contents

Leaf is a former professional volleyball player and competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics. [5]

Early life and education

Leaf was born in London, and raised in Vauxhall early in life. [6] Her family immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was age 8. She attended San Jose State University, then transferred to the University of Miami, where she graduated with a degree in psychology while playing NCAA division 1 volleyball. [7] [8] Leaf later received a Masters in Drama from Central Saint Martins, at Drama Centre London. [9] Her mother, Alison Leaf, is an animator and set dresser, who has worked at Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic. [10] [11]

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References

  1. Director Savanah Leaf Joins Academy. 2019-09-27.
  2. The Poetic Work of Filmmaker Savanah Leaf. 2018-11-28.
  3. Zilko, Christian (16 May 2023). "'Earth Mama' Trailer: A Single Mom Fights for Survival in Savanah Leaf's Socially Conscious Sundance Hit". IndieWire. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  4. Savanah Leaf. IMDB.
  5. London 2012 Archived 2012-08-07 at the Wayback Machine
  6. https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2024/01/17/filmmaker-savanah-leaf-earth-mama
  7. "Savanah Leaf". teamgb.com. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  8. Erbland, Kate (6 July 2023). "How Savanah Leaf Went from Olympic Athlete to Astonishing New Filmmaker to Watch". IndieWire. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  9. https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/bafta-awards-director-debut-savanah-leaf-film-b1139677.html
  10. "Alison Leaf | Visual Effects, Animation Department". IMDb. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  11. "Savanah Leaf". University of Miami Athletics. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2024.