Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival Organizers


Mixed, mixed chicks chat, biracial, multiracial, Heidi Durrow, Fanshen Cox, interracial, transracial adoption
We, at Mixed Chicks Chat, are excited to host the inaugural Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival (TM).

Fanshen Cox (left), Founder & Producer
Actress/Producer/Podcaster/Educator
Fanshen graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and holds an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University. She served 2 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cape Verde, West Africa and was given the Peace Corps' Franklin H. Williams Award when teaching in a high school in the South Bronx. She honed her production skills as a Film Independent Project: Involve Fellow; and is the co-producer and co-host of Mixed Chicks Chat - the only live, weekly podcast about being racially and culturally Mixed (available on itunes or at www.mixedchickschat.com). She was recently quoted in The Guardian and served as an interviewer on StoryCorps' Griot Initiative. As an actress, her credits include: Gone Baby Gone (directed by Ben Affleck), Ellie Parker (opposite Naomi Watts) and numerous television and theater roles. The word fanshen was created by peasants during China's land reform movement and means start a revolution. Fanshen's parents are Jamaican, Scottish, Danish and Native American and she has dedicated her life to sharing her story as a woman of Mixed racial and cultural heritages.

Heidi W. Durrow (right), Founder & Producer
Writer/Podcaster/Lawyer
A graduate of Stanford University, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Yale Law School, Heidi Durrow is a Los Angeles writer who is African-American and Danish. A former litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Heidi has also worked as a consultant to the National Basketball Association and National Football League teaching conflict management and decision-making workshops. As a fiction writer, Heidi has won several awards for her writing-which focuses on issues of biracial and bicultural identity-- including the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, and the Chapter One Fiction Contest. She has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Scandinavian Foundation, the Lois Roth Endowment and an Emerging Writers' Award from the Jerome Foundation. The Elizabeth George Foundation and the American Antiquarian Society have awarded her grants for her novel-in-progress about Miss Lala, a mulatta circus performer and strongwoman of the Victorian era. Heidi's writing has been published in Alaska Quarterly Review and The Literary Review, as well as on the popular blog Light-skinned-ed Girl (www.lightskinnededgirl.typepad.com). She was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In May 2008, Heidi's novel manuscript, Light-skinned-ed Girl, received Barbara Kingsolver's 2008 Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change. The book, to be published by Algonquin Books, will be on shelves Fall 2009. Heidi is the co-host and co-producer of Mixed Chicks Chat (www.mixedchickschat.com), the only live weekly show about being racially and culturally mixed.

Lesa Lakin, Festival DirectorLesa Lakin
Writer/Producer
Lesa Lakin is a writer/producer who began her career in advertising. Her work for clients such as ABC, ESPN, Oxygen, MTV, Snapple and the New York Mets has won many awards in advertising. This experience in commercials led Lesa to television and film production. Starting as a director's assistant on Warner Bros.', Vegas Vacation and Universal's Billy Madison, she excelled in production and became the Executive Producer of Mambo Entertainment. While at Mambo, she was responsible for the series Neighbors for HBO, as well as working on the Academy Award nominated short film, Birch Street Gym, NBC's Sunday's Best, and the MTV series, A Day In The Life. Lesa also produced the feature film, The Independent, featuring Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garafalo and Ben Stiller. The Independent is currently being adapted for the New York stage.

Michelle-Mehri MousaviMichelle-Mehri Mousavi (Meesh), Festival Coordinator
Producer/Performer
Meesh is an award-winning performance, recording and media artist who has screened and performed internationally. She has more than a decade of experience working as a singer, actor, director, editor, cinematographer and producer and has collaborated with dozens of artists, most notably Shirin Neshat, Philip Glass, and Dr. Ysaye Barnwell. She has taught at museums and cultural centers throughout the country, including the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Walker Art Center. Most recently, Meesh transitioned to screenwriter with the musical comedy, MY LIFE AS A TERRORIST. Early drafts have garnered a Jerome Media Arts Grant, a Mill Foundation Writing Fellowship, the Writer's Arc Fellowship and was shortlisted for the 2007 Sundance & Outfest Screenwriting Lab's. She is also the recipient of the 2007 Barbara Boyle Scholarship Award for most promising talent as a filmmaker and outstanding participation in Film Independent's Project:Involve Fellowship program.

Amy Kane, Festival Co-Coordinator
Producer/Non-Profit Leader
Amy Kane is a producer and the co-founder/co-Executive Director of the non-profit organization, The Writer's Arc. Prior to that, she was a Development Executive at Universal Pictures and was responsible for many features films including "A Beautiful Mind," "Cinderella Man," "Blue Crush" and "Inside Man." Amy also currently teaches in the Producing Program at UCLA.