Elizabeth Pearson returned to her hometown--Palo Alto--after having lived
in seven different cities in her post-college years. She graduated with
honors from Harvard College with a BA in American History and Literature.
Elizabeth then attended cooking school; worked as a freelance writer; was
among the first employees of the Television Food Network; was a local news
anchor and reporter; and worked as a producer for several television networks,
including two series for PBS.
The Red String
digital video
25:00 min.
A baby girl is relinquished by her birth parents in China. She is adopted by an unmarried woman in the United States. What then? The Red String takes an intimate look at how four mother-daughter pairs weave together and create culture, heritage and tradition in their families.
Pretzel
16mm, color film
10:15 min.
Pretzel is a film about reinvention, focusing on a woman who has lived "at
least eight lives". She continually contorts herself--both figuratively and
literally--to recreate her life and to become her "true self".
FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS:
- Film Arts Festival, 2003
SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS:
- Jerry Jensen Award for Broadcast Journalism, 2003
- Frances Flaherty Award Grant for the 49th Annual Flaherty Seminar
Cut
Co-Directed by Elizabeth Pearson and
Sally
Rubin
digital video
9:20 min.
Picture two sixteen-year-old boys: one is 5'5", thin, with narrow shoulders and not a whisker on his face. The other is 6'1", with a V-shaped torso capped off by broad muscular arms, and rock- hard abs. These two boys could be classmates, neighbors, perhaps friends. But their divergent sizes and shapes affects the way the outside world sees them and, increasingly, the way they see themselves. Now in distribution through Fanlight Productions, Cut examines the complications of teenage boys' body image, and explores the relationship between physical shape and social/self-acceptance.
Cut's website:
http://www.stanford.edu/~srubin/home.html
Stanford Magazine article about the film:
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/julaug/features/docfilm.html
FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS:
- Honorable Mention, Marin County Film Festival, 2003
- Oakland Film Festival, 2003
- Stanford Alumni Film Festival, 2003
- Stanford Film Festival, 2003
- Screened at Cantor Arts Center as part of an exhibition on body image, May-August, 2003
Fertile Imagination
16mm, black and white film
4:30 min.
Fertile Imagination is a personal essay film that explores the filmmaker's worries, fears, and hopes about bearing children, while her sister is pregnant with her third child.