Laura Colella

Profile

Laura is Founding Faculty of VCFA’s MFA in Film Program. She is a writer and director based in Providence, RI, where she also teaches screenwriting and filmmaking at Brown University.

Laura’s films have screened at more than 100 festivals, winning over 25 awards. Her third and most recent feature, the Independent Spirit award-winning comedy BREAKFAST WITH CURTIS, was released theatrically in 2014. (The full film is available on Amazon, iTunes, Google, Vudu, and Youtube.) The Village Voice described it as “a lovely tapestry of subtlety, full of sly, smart humor and unforced insights into human nature.” Laura was a Sundance Directing and Screenwriting Lab Fellow with her second feature STAY UNTIL TOMORROW, which the Los Angeles Times described as “an evocative meta-film.” With her first feature TAX DAY, Laura received an equipment donation from Sundance, and was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film. The Boston Herald called TAX DAY “a truly genuine feel-good movie” with “the quick-witted cleverness of the best road movies,” while the Chicago Reader said it “reminds us of the potential richness of both life and filmmaking.”

Laura has made several shorts, including CHRYSKYLODON BLUES, filmed behind-the-scenes on the set of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film INHERENT VICE. It was described as “a superior making-of documentary” (Chicago Reader), “laced with all the psychedelic goodness you always wanted” (Indiewire), and “a welcome alternative to the bland EPKs and featurettes usually released by studios” (The Playlist). Laura is currently in post-production with a narrative short THE FLYING ELECTRIC, with which she was a Bogliasco Fellow. Other short film highlights include award-winners STATUARY and THE SAME ARK, and music videos for Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores.

As an undergrad at Harvard, Laura studied with filmmakers Raúl Ruiz, Robb Moss, and Miklos Jancso. She taught 16MM film production and directing at the Rhode Island School of Design for many years and earned an MFA in Writing for Performance from Brown, where she studied with Erik Ehn. She is also a playwright and frequent video collaborator on touring multimedia theatre productions with the Everett Company. She is represented by United Talent Agency and freelances as a screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor.