Mirra Bank
Introduction (2-3 lines)
Mirra Bank is a member of the Academy. Her feature doc Last Dance followed the stormy collaboration between Pilobolus and legendary author/illustrator Maurice Sendak. Short-listed for an Academy Award, it aired in the US and Europe, was featured at Aspen, AFI, Chicago Art Institute, many dance film festivals. Her recent feature, The Only Real Game, is on Netflix, after acclaimed festival and theatrical runs. She is in production on No Fear No Favor, set in the vast Kafue Wilderness in Zambia.
Film and TV feature credits include: Last Dance, (with Pilobolus and Maurice Sendak; Academy Award shortlist). Enormous Changes, (with David Strathairn, Kevin Bacon; Sundance and theatrical release). Nobody's Girls (5 minority women of the Old West) PBS special. Commissions: CPB, PBS, NEA, NEH, NYSCA, NYFA, FJC, AFI, Wolftrap, Carnegie Hall. Awards: Cine; Emmy; Chris; Golden Gate; AFF Blue; Seattle, AMPAS and NBR Ten Best. Screenings: Sundance, NYFF, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, Aspen, Palm Springs, London, San Francisco, Hawaii, Edinburgh, Palm Beach, Silverdocs; Full Frame; Hamptons. Member, Academy of Motion Pictures; MacDowell and AFI Fellow; Board of Directors, NBR. President, NYWIFT; Lifetime member, Actors Studio.
Mirra Bank (Director/Producer) is an award-winning director of film, television and theater. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picutres, Documentary Branch. Her feature documentary, Last Dance, was short-listed for an Academy Award. Her PBS nonfiction feature, Nobody's Girls, illuminated the lives of minority women in the Old West. Her independent feature, Enormous Changes, premiered at Sundance and went on to theatrical release. Bank’s work has premiered at the New York Film Festival, and festivals worldwide, including Toronto, Sundance, London, Los Angeles, Hamptons, Palm Springs, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Jakarta, Hawaii, Seattle, Chicago, Dance Camera West, Dance on Camera, NYC, and has been honored with many film and television awards and commissions. Her theater work has been seen on stages around New York and in London. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, is a MacDowell Fellow and a past President of New York Women in Film and Television, where she continues to serve on the Advisory Board. She is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio, where she directs regularly. Her new film about baseball in a strife torn corner of northeast India, The Only Real Game, is now on Netlfix, after winning festival awards (New York Indian Film Festival, BEST DOCUMENTARY; Sedona International Film Festival, DIRECTORS’ CHOICE AWARD; Asia Pacific International Film Awards, DOCUMENTARY - GOLD) and high praise in its theatrical release. www.OnlyRealGameMovie.com.
Bank is currently in post production on No Fear No Favor, an offbeat, intimate documentary about efforts to stem the poaching crisis - and species cascade - that threaten sub-Saharan Africa. Shot in Zambia's vast Kafue Wilderness, one of the largest and least known intact wildlife reserves in the world, No Fear No Favor reveals that community stewardship and local financial benefit derived from protecting living resources are key elements to sustainable conservation. Poachers and habitat degradation are ravaging this impoverished area, where humans and wildlife meet on the borders of wilderness. Implementing successful practices in sensitive ecosystems worldwide is an urgent issue for all of us...
