Name Stefan Schaefer Role Writer | Spouse Chenta Laury (m. 2004) | |
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Education Wesleyan University, Skid College Movies My Last Day Without Y, Arranged, Even Though the Whole W, The Amazing Truth Abo, Confess Similar People Diane Crespo, Francis Benhamou, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, Laith Nakli, Ken Duken | ||
Organizations founded Cicala Filmworks | ||
Filmaker Stefan Schaefer Extends His Thanks To Hawaii Lawmakers
Stefan Schaefer is an American writer, director and producer of independent films and television.
Contents
- Filmaker Stefan Schaefer Extends His Thanks To Hawaii Lawmakers
- Early life and education
- Career
- Theatrical
- Television
- Awards and nominations
- References
Early life and education
Schaefer was born in Boston, spent his childhood in Sussex, England and his adolescent years in Detroit and New York City. He studied acting and political theory at Skidmore College and Wesleyan University, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Following a year and a half in Germany—where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kiel—he returned to New York and co-founded the production company Cicala Filmworks.
He is the maternal grandson of polar explorer and ornithologist Carl R. Eklund.
Career
Schaefer's films have premiered and won awards at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and SxSW, among many others, and have been successfully released theatrically and on TV channels such as PBS, HBO and the Sundance Channel.
He has over ten feature film credits to his name, among them My Last Day Without You, The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, and Arranged. On these and other projects he's worked with Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, Ali Larter, Zoe Lister-Jones, Ken Duken, Nicole Beharie, Michael Imperioli, and many more. In addition to these indie features, Stefan and writing partner Christoph Silber have written four TV movies for leading European networks ARD and ZDF, two of which filmed in Hawai’i.
On the documentary front, Schaefer directed the one-hour television documentary Contested Streets, which looks at what New York can learn from London, Paris and Copenhagen in terms of organizing its streets and public spaces. The film screened widely at environmental film festivals and aired as part of "The Green" series on the Sundance Channel. In 2015, he released a feature documentary on Poet Laureate and environmental activist W.S. Merwin, entitled "Even Though the Whole World Is Burning". A one-hour version of the film, called "W.S. Merwin: To Plant a Tree" was broadcast nationally on PBS in April 2016.
Schaefer has TV shows in development with Sony Pictures TV, The Weinstein Company and Big Beach. Additionally, he co-created the series "Surf Break Hotel" with Jonathan Stern of Abominable Pictures. Backed by Insurrection Media and the Hawaii-based GVS Accelerator, the pilot shot on Maui in 2016.
Schaefer is a frequent collaborator with Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur, screenwriter Christoph Silber, and Diane Crespo. An active member of the Writers Guild of America, East, he's is managed by LA-based Industry Entertainment.