Photo: Jonathan Grassi
When I was nine years old I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. I became obsessed with Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg as a kid and begged my parents to take me to the movie theater to see the same films over and over. I graduated from The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, a small college on an island where people talked about sustainability, how performance art can change the world and the importance of being yourself, earning a B.A. in Human Ecology and a concentration in Film and Writing. Since then, just like a pirate, I've lived in various places - the mountains of Vermont, the urban jungle of New York City, a yoga center in Massachusetts, the coastal city of Portland, Maine, and have traveled extensively throughout the U.S. in an old renovated city bus with nine other people for three months - while working on a Columbia University documentary about unique roadside attractions with cinematographer Chris Teague (Russian Doll, Broad City) . Currently, I live in Los Angeles.
After freelancing in film and television for many years (working for A&E, TLC, HBO, NBC, MTV and The Travel Channel), I decided it was time to focus on writing and steered my ship into The Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program through the University of Southern Maine (voted #8 in the country by Poets & Writers!) where I worked on fiction and screenwriting. I've written and directed two short films, Arabel (Best Maine Film, Emerge Film Fest 2015) and The Poet (Best Short Film at the Noosa International Film Festival in Queensland, Australia 2016 and Audience Award Best Horror Short, SENE Film Fest 2017). I also wrote and directed a full-length play based on the lives of the Beastie Boys, in addition to my full-length screenplay Rock N' Roll & The Immortal Soul, which was requested by the Sundance Film Institute. My TV pilot, The Resistance, was a Finalist at the Austin Revolution Film Fest and a Quarterfinalist at Cinestory. Most recently I was commissioned to write a TV pilot for Jynx Productions, which is a Quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break Contest.
My creative philosophy can best be described through the music of Jack White, especially The White Stripes:
When you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
but when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of how you got started
sitting in your little room.
May you have fair winds and following seas,
Erin
After freelancing in film and television for many years (working for A&E, TLC, HBO, NBC, MTV and The Travel Channel), I decided it was time to focus on writing and steered my ship into The Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program through the University of Southern Maine (voted #8 in the country by Poets & Writers!) where I worked on fiction and screenwriting. I've written and directed two short films, Arabel (Best Maine Film, Emerge Film Fest 2015) and The Poet (Best Short Film at the Noosa International Film Festival in Queensland, Australia 2016 and Audience Award Best Horror Short, SENE Film Fest 2017). I also wrote and directed a full-length play based on the lives of the Beastie Boys, in addition to my full-length screenplay Rock N' Roll & The Immortal Soul, which was requested by the Sundance Film Institute. My TV pilot, The Resistance, was a Finalist at the Austin Revolution Film Fest and a Quarterfinalist at Cinestory. Most recently I was commissioned to write a TV pilot for Jynx Productions, which is a Quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break Contest.
My creative philosophy can best be described through the music of Jack White, especially The White Stripes:
When you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
but when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of how you got started
sitting in your little room.
May you have fair winds and following seas,
Erin
Check out the trailers to two short films I wrote and directed.
Arabel Trailer from Erin Enberg on Vimeo.
The Poet Trailer from Erin Enberg on Vimeo.