Filmmakers
Erin Harper
ERIN HARPER (director/editor, MY WILD HEART) is a writer/director/producer who shoots and edits. She produced her first narrative feature, MY BEST DAY (directed by Erin Greenwell), premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, directed an international award-winning short doc, PASSION, which received grant support from NYSCA, and was cinematographer for Barbara Hammer's latest two award-winning films, MAYA DEREN’S SINK (Teddy for best short film at Berlinale) and WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE (a film supported by The Guggenheim Fellowship). Erin is developing a short, VERAL and feature narrative adaptation, EAST OF DENVER both optioned from the work of award-winning author, Greg Hill. Erin is currently producing a one-woman-band observational docu-series about farming practices across the country. Last year she launched a filmmaking initiative with a group of politically active Latina high schoolers in rural Colorado. She seeks partnerships for developing the program into an urban/rural filmmaking exchange. Erin was visiting professor at Pratt Institute teaching production and documentary hybrid forms and has spoken on panels, mentored and judged community filmmaking organizations that support youth scholarship programs. Erin received an M.F.A. in film from CCNY in 2008 and a B.S. in theatre from Northwestern University in 1996.
Lily Vakili
LILY VAKILI (co-director & producer, MY WILD HEART) is the youngest daughter of Nader Vakili, the subject of MY WILD HEART. A peripatetic background — born in Honduras and raised in Florida, Thailand, Puerto Rico and Iowa — contributed to an early interest in creative expression as both a form of identity and a necessity of assimilation. Lily’s early experience in the performing arts includes work with Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company, Ballet of the Dolls, and Brass Tacks Theatre, film work with American visual artist, Bruce Charlesworth, directing summer theatre productions, and acting and backstage work at the La Mama Experimental Theatre Company under Ellen Stewart in New York City. A lifelong love of poetry and music brought Lily back to the performance side of the arts as a lead singer and songwriter for the eponymous Lily Vakili Band. She has released three albums: LAKE CITY: NEXT THREE EXITS (produced by Bruce Hanson), MEADOWLANDS (produced by Jim Mastro) and OH ALRIGHT (produced by Ray Ketchem). Her film work includes producing and directing music videos for the Lily Vakili Band, directing HAPPY MONDAY, a documentary short advocating physical education opportunities for high-school students with disabilities, and development and production of I AM MONTCLAIR (directed by Nadine Licostie), a disability rights documentary short that premiered at the 2013 Montclair Film Festival. Lily is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and Harvard Law School, Senior Counsel with Faber, Daeufer & Itrato PC, and a member of Montclair, New Jersey Township’s Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities.