FILM

About the Directors

Abel worked on Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino as a voice actor, an assistant to casting, and as a 2nd unit on the exclusive Blu-ray documentary Gran Torino: Next Door. He’s worked as a script consultant for Oscar-winning documentarian, Lynne Littman (Number Our Days, Testament), on her screenplay adaptation of Anne Fadiman’s National Book Critics Circle Award Winner (1997), The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. In 2011, Abel won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for THE TIGER’S CHILD, a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother. Gail Katz (Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Pawn Sacrifice) is currently attached to produce their Nicholl-winning screenplay. Abel was also selected as one of the top 20 finalists at the 2013 FOX Writers Intensive for an original supernatural pilot he co-wrote with his brother, Burlee. Abel holds an MFA in Cinema & Television Production from University of Southern California and a BS in Biology from California State University of Fresno.

Burlee Vang won the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science 2011 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for The Tiger’s Child. He also worked as a voice actor on Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Burlee is the author of The Dead I Know: Incantation for Rebirth (Swan Scythe Press) and co-editor of How Do I Begin? A Hmong American Literary Anthology (Heyday). His writing has appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Massachusetts Review, and Asia Literary Review. In 2004, Burlee founded the Hmong American Writers’ Circle to promote and nurture creative writing within the Hmong community. His long-time efforts were highlighted in the article, “A Hmong Generation Finds Its Voice in Writing,” which appeared in The New York Times in 2011. Recently, Burlee was awarded a 2012 Visual, Craft, and Literary Arts grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.