About Bryan Wizemann


Biography



Bryan Wizemann is an independent director, writer, producer, and editor of film, raised in Las Vegas and based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited internationally at film festivals and museums, on IFC and Wholphin, and streamed on Netflix, Amazon, SundanceNow, iTunes, FilmStruck, FilmBuff, and Fandor.

Wizemann’s latest feature YOU MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME was awarded the Rooftop Films and Brigade Festival Publicity grant and accepted into the Sundance Institute Film Music and Sound Design Lab. His feature ABOUT SUNNY premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at IFF Boston. Lauren Ambrose was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead with distribution by Oscilloscope. The screenplay was one of the top three winners of the Slamdance Feature Screenplay Competition. Wizemann’s microbudget feature LOSING GROUND was adapted from his critically acclaimed New York stage play and features the original cast. It premiered at Cinequest with distribution by FilmBuff. His early experimental 16mm feature SENSE starring Maria Dizzia was programmed at the Johnson Museum of Art and the Angelika Film Centre.

Wizemann’s short film work includes his college thesis 16mm film BUTTON SOUP (Cornell), THE MORNING SUN (Rooftop, IFC Media Lab) the television series COOKLYN (BRIC arts media), and FILM MAKES US HAPPY (DocPoint Helsinki, IFFB, Rooftop, Hamptons, Wholphin), which documents the last fight he'll ever have with his wife about making films. His graphic novel The Weakest Fish, illustrated by Edgar Camacho, was adapted from his screenplay of the same name. Wizemann also produced/mixed/drummed on the debut album Don't Ever Let Them Tell You Otherwise from Ted Rinehart.

Wizemann has studied dramatic writing and directing with Tom Noonan (Paradise Theater), Lee Breuer (Flea Theater), Forest Stone (Yale Drama), Adrienne Weiss (Directing Actors), and DnA. He is the author of a collection of dramatic monologues, television pilots, stage plays, and screenplays, and has written for National Geographic and Radical Media. His interviews appear in Filmmaker Magazine, WSWS, Rooftop Films, Filmwax Radio, Tribute Canada, and BRIC.

Wizemann is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film at Pratt Institute. He was a Sundance Lab Fellow, a guest artist and lecturer at Cornell University, The New School, and UNLV, and served as a juror for the Pratt Film/Video Program and the Heermans-McCalmon Dramatic Writing Panel. Wizemann is a graduate of Cornell University and was part of the MFA program at Hunter College.

Filmography


You Mean Everything to Me

HD, color, 90min. 2019
Producer | Writer | Director


After getting kicked out of her sister's place, Cassandra
falls hard and fast for Nathan, a local DJ. After a whirlwind
romance, he starts distancing them from her friends and
family, and his demands grow increasingly darker.
Confused and desperate, she must figure out how to save
another from the same fate.

Cooklyn

HD, color, 28min. 2015
Director | Editor | Sound


Six Episode BRIC Television Series, Brooklyn NY
Television pilot, Brooklyn NY

About Sunny

HD, color, 103min. 2012
Writer | Director


WINNER Grand Jury Prize, Independent Film Festival Boston
Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best Female Lead
US Premiere Hamptons International Film Festival
World Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
Top three winners, Slamdance Feature Screenplay Competition

Film Makes Us Happy

HD, color, 12min. 2010
Producer | Director | Editor | Sound


DocPoint International Film Festival, Helsinki
Featured film on the Wholphin DVD website
International Film Festival of Boston, MA
Rooftop Films, Best of Summer Shorts, Brooklyn, NY
Hamptons International Film Festival, East Hampton, NY
80 Minutes of Shorts, New York NY

The Morning Sun

HD, color, 5min. 2007
Producer | Writer | Director | Editor


Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, NY
Independent Film Channel
Winner IFC Media Lab Best of July

Losing Ground

DVCam, color, 90min. 2005
Producer | Writer | Director


Santa Fe Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM
CineVegas Film Festival, Las Vegas, NV
Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, CA

Sense

16mm, color, 85min. 1998
Producer | Writer | Director | Editor


IFFM, Angelika Film Center, New York, NY
Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Theatre, Ithaca, NY

Button Soup

16mm, b&w sepia, 14min. 1996
Producer | Writer | Director | Editor


Cinema Village Theater, New York, NY
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY




Screenplays


Eva's Daughter's Son

Feature Screenplay


An Armenian doctor uncovers a shocking truth about his family's past, leading
to his ostracism from friends, coworkers, and society. As the revelations unfold,
he must confront the repercussions of his discovery.

When I Find Her

Feature Screenplay


In 1982, a British woman kidnaps a young girl who shares her name.
She claims it's to protect the girl's future and save her mother's life.

I'll Be Whatever You Want

Feature Screenplay


Alex, a young woman, is approached by a retiree at a grocery store.
They soon forge a relationship that neither one expected.

The Prince of Nigeria

Episodic Pilot


Ayodele, a Nigerian teenager, gets recruited by a group
of 419 Internet scam artists. His internal conflict grows as
his solicitations enter the world, and he learns how far
some will go for love, for status, for security, and what
he himself must sacrifice for his freedom.

The Weakest Fish

Feature Screenplay


A teenage boy flees to Mexico after witnessing his
mother's murder, where he discovers a new world.

Humor Me

Feature Screenplay
written with Andrew Semans


Just as her life is finally coming together, Alia Marantz
gets dumped. His reason? She has no sense of humor. Alia
pledges to prove her ex wrong and to show the world that
she is, in fact, funny.

Each Coming Night

Feature Screenplay


Dan, a suburban high school senior falls hard for Jessie,
an impulsive girl from his school. Dan soon realizes that
his new girlfriend is spiraling out of control. Jessie won't
let him go, and threatens to take him down with her.

The Odyssey

Feature Screenplay


Three college friends spending their last summer
together embark on a fateful trip to Montreal.