Amy Grappell
Filmmaking
Austin, TX
Amy Grappell’s recent documentary KINDERLAND about the history of Jewish socialist summer camp, won Best Short Documentary at the Santa Fe Ind. Film Festival and was part of the official selection for DOC NYC 2021. Her last short documentary QUADRANGLE, about her experience growing up in a group marriage, premiered at Sundance in 2010, where it won a Jury Prize. It went on to win Best Short Film at SXSW, AFI, and Dallas International Film Festivals, and had its New York premiere at New Directors / New Films before being broadcast on HBO. She returned to Sundance in 2011 with a short documentary titled “Kids Green The World.” She was one of the select writer/directors of Richard Linklater’s SLACKER remake, and her feature documentary LIGHT FROM THE EAST, shot in Ukraine during the fall of Communism, premiered at SXSW, aired on PBS and is part of the collection at the Library of Congress. Grappell holds a BA in film and literature from New York University, is a graduate of the MFA acting program at The North Carolina School of the Arts. She is the recipient of grants from Austin Film Society, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Council for the Humanities and the Trull Foundation. During her residency at Ragdale, she hopes to complete the first draft of a memoir based on her autobiographical award-winning film QUADRANGLE.