ERIN (WRITER, DIRECTOR, SUPPORTING)
Hailing from midwest WI, Erin currently lives and works in NYC where she spends most of her time watching movies and people. Erin met Sophie Mitchell while studying acting at the William Esper studio and the two quickly began developing the idea for The Wild Woman and the Painter. When she’s not working events, Erin makes films with her pals and tries to write screenplays for bigger, longer movies. Erin is currently a production and development assistant in NYC where she is learning the ins and outs of indie film development and production.
SOPHIE (WRITER, LEAD)
Sophie grew up in the countryside of Free Union, Virginia with her parents and younger brother Keenan. Though quiet growing up, Sophie was always interested in performing. At thirteen, she began singing alongside her mom in variety shows for nursing home patients and she and Keenan spent their summers making movies with a hand-me-down camera. After high school, she worked as a professional baker and had her screen debut as the werewolf Angela in the comedy “Faux Paws” before moving to New York City. In 2015, she graduated from The Esper Studio’s Acting program where she met fellow filmmaker Erin Whited-Ford. Sophie currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her partner and their two cats where she continues to write screenplays, bake, and teach herself guitar and oil painting.
Director Statement
After meeting as actors and realizing that we had both recently escaped unhealthy relationships , we (Erin and Sophie) decided to read Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” a collection of myths and stories that dissect the female psyche at various life stages. The book became a tattered, dog eared bible of sorts and after realizing the parallels between our lives and the tale “Bluebeard,” which depicts a man consuming and destroying the lives of naive young women, we decided to write our own version of the story.
We began throwing around ideas for a film that illustrated the psychological experience of losing one’s soul fire, one’s wild woman, to this predatory like force.
In its early stages, the script had our heroine living with a physical and emotional abuser to visualize her loss of self power. As we evolved in our artistic lives and personal lives, we began to see our protagonist as not only a naive young lover but as an artist struggling with creative paralysis.
The predatory force morphed into the overbearing Demetri character whose insatiable ego and possessive tendencies cause submissiveness in our protagonist.
Through working on this project we have traversed the peaks and valleys of creative doubt and undeniable fulfillment, much like our Painter in the film. With this work, we hope to display the gifts one can uncover by listening to one’s deepest self , creating art from that place, then deciding who gives a f*** what happens after?
Festival for HORROR 
