PROFILE
Lisanne Skyler
Professor, School of Theatre, Film and Television
School of Theatre, Film & Television
B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley; M.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University
Lisanne Skyler is an award-winning, internationally distributed screenwriter/director of Critically acclaimed documentary, feature, branded and short films for HBO, PBS, Sundance Channel and international platforms all over the word. Exploring complex social issues through a personal lens, her films have been selected for the world's most prestigious film festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Sundance, AFI Fest, South x Southwest, the San Francisco International and the Venice Biennale.
Skyler wrote and directed the Oscar-Shortlisted and globally released HBO Documentary Film Brillo Box (3¢ off), now streaming on MAX and throughout Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the Middle East. In 2021, her searing, historic South Central Los Angeles documentary No Loans Today (Sundance FIlm Festival) was acquired by the UCLA Film & Television Archives and is now available on Amazon.
For her dramatic short Capture the Flag Skyler received the SHOWTIME/TONY COX AWARD for BEST SHORT at the Nantucket Film Festival. For writing/directing the critically acclaimed Sundance competition and Venice Film Festival selected dramatic feature Getting To Know You, adapted from short stories by iconic author Joyce Carol Oates and starrring Heather Matarazzo, Zach Braff and Bebe Neuwirth, she received a FIPRESCI SPECIAL JURY AWARD at the Stockholm International Film Festival and was nominated for a Film Independent INDEPENDENT SPIRIT SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD.
Born and raised in New York City, Skyler is currently in postproduction on the feature documentary This Side of Midnight, about the artists of the1980s Downtown New York nightclubs, and recently signed on to direct the forthcoming biography about pioneering designer Florence Knoll. As a screenwriter, Skyler has worked for producers such as Mike Figgis, John Penotti, Nellie Bellflower, Radical Media and Ramfis Myrthil. She has served on juries and selection committees for Sundance AFI, Aspen Film Fest, Provincetown and Film Independent, and is a member of The Loft Cinema Board of Directors.
Skyler is represented by Zero Gravity Management, Los Angeles.