Starting Something

Kat Candler (r) on the set of "Pilot and Olo"

"What makes us different from all other companies? We have a shared vision of the projects we want to make. We aren't settling for working on the visions of others, we have our own and even when we do disagree, that's an area on which we always agree. We are in Austin, we want to stay in Austin. We want to create projects that we believe in and make money doing it. We want to do our good work and be paid for it, grow as artists and as people. We all have different projects, and we all help each other see them completed. So, what we have is not just a woman-only company, it's a company based on our shared values. And, if 'feminine' is soft and yielding, we represent the feminine that is resilient, passionate, and is tired of asking for permission. (In a nice way, of course.)"

That's Storie Productions' mission statement, courtesy of Stacy Schoolfield, who, along with filmmakers Kat Candler (Cicadas) and Lorie Marsh (Rescue Me) have taken everything one sensible step further and formed their own feminized production company with an eye toward creating quality narrative and doc films, plays, and whatever else strikes them.

"I was commissioned to do a short film for KERA in Dallas – 'Pilot and Olo' – and that was basically our first project," says Candler. "And, since then, we've begun work producing a feature that I wrote called Brain Brawl. We're also in post-production on a feature documentary called Rescue Me, about animal rescue. We're just trying to do the whole thing in Austin and get some projects off the ground."

This city, of course, lacks for neither production companies nor femme-centric film groups, but the pairing of the two may be something of a first outside of venerable Austin mainstay Reel Women. And as seemingly with all upstart film companies, there's a benefit close at hand – Saturday, Aug. 28, 6pm, at Tambaleo, 302 Bowie, to be precise – where $10 gets you food, drinks, music, and enough post-riot grrrl shortitude to boost estrogen levels citywide. It's about time.