KATHLEEN BRYSON

Alaskan-born writer-director Kathleen Bryson's first novel Mush was published in 2001 and her second, Girl on a Stick, in 2008. Her first feature film, The Viva Voce Virus (Great Britain 2008, 118 min), which she wrote and then co-directed with Finnish director Kimmo Moykky, started its festival circuit in November, 2008. In December, Kathleen was selected to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2009. Kathleen has two B.A. degrees from the University of Washington (Anthropology & Swedish), studied a postgraduate year of acting at the London Academy of Performing Arts and received her M.A. in Independent Film and Video from the London College of Printing.

A dual U.S./U.K. national, Kathleen has lived in Alaska, Stockholm, Seattle, London and Portland. She currently lives in East London. A frequently exhibited painter, she has had eight solo art exhibitions, and as an actor has appeared in plays and rehearsed readings at the Rosemary Branch (London), the Lyric Hammersmith, and the Camden People's Theatre, among others. She has acted in more than 20 short films, including the title role in I Am Diana Dors by Ali Smith, screened at the Cambridge International Film Festival, Clinic by Fiona O'Donnell, screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Surrender by Sarah Wood, screened at London's National Film Theatre. She also starred in Sarah Wood's I Want to be a Secretary, which won Best Film in 2007 at the London Short Film Festival, and will be playing a pirate queen in Wood's upcoming pirate feature.

Alongside the 2009 Berlinale Talent Campus, Kathleen's recent directorial work has been accepted and shown at the Siren Nation Film Festival (the World Premiere for The Viva Voce Virus) and Cine25 at City Screen in York, England (the UK Premiere for The Viva Voce Virus in February 2009). Her short film The Syllogism was screened at the Art Institute of Portland as a Finalist for the "My Pretty Portland" Competition in summer 2008 and at London's Flixation series at the Horse Hospital in autumn 2008. Flixation also showed her short The Wonderful Thing in December 2008. Her documentary short Kentucky Fried World, about the independent fried chicken establishments of London, screened at the Ladyfest Olympia Film Festival in 2005. Her experimental film He's Lucid was shown as part of a performance-art piece at the Bumbershoot Seattle Arts Festival the same year as well.