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  Meet Actress – Producer Anita Cordell
  

 

I did not produce because it was the love of my life or anything. It was a way for me to become a part of a project called the 168FilmProject

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Though I’ve known Anita Cordell for several years as a Facebook friend, I only recently had the pleasure of meeting her in person. Anita was the producer and acted in an award-winning short film called Charismata that played here in Austin at the Attic Film Festival.

It was my pleasure to meet Anita at the Attic festival and to attend a screening of Charismata, which also featured an appearance by the director, Joni Adahl.

I knew then that I wanted to have Anita as a guest on Actors Talk and I’m excited that she is here to talk about working as an actor in a Non-L.A. market (she’s writing a book on that subject) and about her work as a producer, primarily of short films. Take a look at Anita’s credits on IMDb and you’ll see that she’s acted in and/or produced close to 20 short film projects.

Anita is proactive in her career. She’s dynamic on-screen and off and she has some terrific insights into what it takes to forge an acting career in a non-L.A. market.

 

Anita has not stopped at just waiting for the opportunities to get cast. She started up River Productions back in 2011 and jumped into producing films, not only for herself, but for others.

 

From PK to Producer of a Five Film Series on Human Trafficking

Cast Shot From the I WILL RISE Project

Anita Cordell, a PK or preacher’s kid, was born in Tulsa, OK but grew up mostly in Kansas. Like a lot of preacher’s kids or other kids who grow up with a strong involvement with church, she got her early theatrical training there. Though at the time she didn’t know that’s what she was doing.

She was just doing what all ‘church kids’ do – singing, acting in skits, reading Bible verses aloud for class or congregation, etc. But those skills were developed over time and would pay off later as an actress on stage and more recently in commercials, television and in films.

Here’s some biographical info from Anita Cordell’s Website:

Anita is often seen in local and regional commercials in the Midwest, as well as many Independent films across the country. She is currently the Spokesperson for Slim4Life, which is airing in many Mid-West markets, she is the current HyVee mom, and she recently shot a National Print job for Dairy Queen.

Anita Cordell resides in Kansas City as a VoiceOver, On Camera and Print Actress, as well as a Commercial/Film Producer with 6 nominations associated with her productions, including 2 for best actress. Anita has also worked in over 30 film projects including several award-winning films: ‘THE LAMP’, ‘ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE’ and ‘BONNIE & CLYDE VS. DRACULA‘. She also co-starred in PITCHING HOPE and she also holds the starring role in LIVING WATERS, her first short film to co-produce and her first film to receive a best actress nomination.

In 2012, she awarded the recipient of the Robert Altman Education Grant along with 9 other Film Professionals in Kansas City. This grant allowed the recipients to take a Fast Track class focused on Film with UMKC.

Anita has also had the distinct honor of sitting on a panel of judges for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) to judge Regional Emmy® nominations from 2008-2011 and she is a member of the Kansas City Women in Film.

She is represented by Exposure, Inc., in Overland Park, KS; Anita has a BA in Business and Marketing from the University of Kansas. She is married and has 3 beautiful children and a dog named Max-a-Million-Braveheart-The-Bruce.

Breaking A Leg In A Non-L.A. Market

Anita and I talked for just over an hour and I’ve edited down that conversation into a more manageable time of around thirty minutes.

Our conversation covered a good bit of territory, primarily in the area of what it’s like to forge a career as an actor and producer in a regional market. In fact, Anita says in the interview that she’s working on a book about just that subject. Tentative title: Breaking A Leg In A Non-L.A. Market.

Be sure to take note of this great tip Anita passes along about maintaining contact and relationships with fellow actors and other professionals we meet on set:

“that has really tried to invest time in me or allowed me to be on their set…so I have a long list of directors and producers and actors and I try to stay connected to people as best as I can…reaching out to those people and at least trying to stay connected once in a while is a good thing…”

 

You can find out more about her take on this subject by visiting her Blog

I Will Rise – A Five Short Film Series on Human Trafficking

 

It was not knowledge I wanted to know about…it’s not fun information to learn about…people just do not know about it and it’s that bubble I’m trying to break…

 

As I said above, Anita has been associated with almost 20 short film projects over the past several years. In some she was an actor but in others she was both actor and producer. All that work in shorts has given her the confidence to tackle a truly ambitious project called I WILL RISE or The ‘I WILL RISE Project.

This project will consist of five individual, stand-alone short films. Some will be narrative and some are planned as documentary projects.

The first film in the series, HOUSE MOTHER, has wrapped principal photography and is now in post. The story of that film is about a woman who grooms the young girls and prepares them to get pimped out into the ‘life.’

Inspired by her daughter who brought this issue to her attention, Anita has had this idea percolating for about five years.

 

We as a society need to be more engaged with our children, we need to be more engaged with what’s going on in our country…if we as parents will do our jobs, our daughters will be safer.

 

CONNECT WITH ANITA

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Actress-Anita-Cordell/98273962534

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/anitacordell

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnitaCordell

The post I Will Rise – Five Films By Anita Cordell | 051 appeared first on Actors Talk.