WILDERNESS FILMS
Cornelia Ravenal
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Mikael Södersten
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Her work has been performed at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and regional theaters, published in newsmagazines in Asia and North America, and screened at international film festivals. Her feature script THE INITIATION is slated for production in 2010 with producer Larry Meistrich (“Sling Blade”). Previously, she wrote and produced documentaries and shorts, including THE OTHER WOMAN (2007), WHITE MAN’S BLUES (2006) and FIVE FEELINGS ABOUT FOOD (2005), which have screened at more than 25 festivals and won five “Best” awards. For Wilderness Films, Cornelia identifies creative projects and development opportunities, often furnishing the original vision as well as bringing together the teams and resources to turn them into reality. As an independent filmmaker, she has also worked in many areas of production and post-production. Prior to Wilderness Films, she worked as a journalist, published in The New York Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer and syndicated by Pacific News Service, writing on subjects as diverse as media, education, business, art and spirituality. Asian publications for which she was a regular contributor include Verve, Interiors India and Art Asia Pacific, while living in Delhi and Mumbai. She spent two years (’96-‘98) as a US correspondent for India Today (India’s Newsweek). She has also worked with Fortune 500 clients, creating videos and multimedia events for Time Warner, Citibank, American Express and many others, focusing on emerging markets such as India and China. As a writer-producer, she guided close to 40 videos from conception through completion. For the first decade out of college, Cornelia worked as a playwright and composer-lyricist. Her first production, OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN (for which she wrote book, music and lyrics) was the longest-running show in the history of the New Playwrights Theater, named a “Critics Pick” (Washington Post). TWO’S A CROWD (co-lyrics, co-book, co-music), opened at the Westbank and went on to a sold-out run at the Ballroom in New York. ARNIE (lyrics and co-book) was released on CD. Theater awards include the Seagram’s Award for New Music Theater and the National Music Theater Network award. Filmmaking honors include five “Best” awards for shorts and documentaries, including a Sandcastle Award at the 2006 Moondance Film Festival for Best Filmmaking Team. Fellowships and competitive programs include the three-year BMI Lehman Engel Music Theater Workshop with Maury Yeston (“Nine”), the ASCAP Music Theater Workshop with Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”) and the AFI Comedy Writer’s Workshop. Cornelia started out as an actress and singer at age 15, performing her own songs at music clubs in Washington DC. Her first job in the industry was in high school, collaborating on soul and funk songs for DCA Records. She studied film and dramatic writing at the NYU Graduate Dramatic Writing Program and New York Film Academy. She has a B.A. in English and American Literature with a minor in Music from Harvard University. |
As a director, Mikael’s recent films include THE OTHER WOMAN (2007), a “Best in Festival” short he directed, edited and sound-edited; WHITE MAN'S BLUES (2006), a short he directed and edited; and the award-winning, offbeat documentary FIVE FEELINGS ABOUT FOOD (2005), which he co-directed, shot and edited. Together, his films have screened in over 25 festivals and won five “Best” awards. View reel. As a script doctor and dramaturg, he has consulted to numerous European directors and writers. He is currently working with best-selling novelist Henning Mankell on a dramatic mini-series for Swedish TV about the life of Ingmar Bergman, with Oscar-nominated Susanne Bier slated to direct. As Senior Script Advisor to the Swedish Film Institute from 2006-09, ten of the 25 films he worked on were produced, including 2008 Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner KING OF PING PONG and 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Best Feature winner LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. The documentary PRIZE OF THE POLE, on which he consulted , recently won the Amnesty Award at the Copenhagen Dox Festival. Other clients with whom he has worked closely include writer-director Hannes Holm, producer Patrick Ryborn, and producer Andras Erkel of Studio Baestarts (one of Europe’s leading animation studios) on director György Pálfi’s next film. Others include Anders Grönros, Kristian Petri, Mats Ahrén, Jerzy Sladkowski, Anders Birkeland, Michael Haslund-Christensen, Peter Possne, Peter Kropénin and Eurimage, for which he has been an Analyst and Evaluator. Read testimonials. Prior to his relocation to the US in late 2003, he was Head of Production for a Bonnier Group multimedia company. He's also worked in production with prominent Nordic film companies Fladen Film, Metronome, Nimbus Film, Sandrews and Omega, and collaborated on films by breakthrough directors Tomas Vinterberg and Stig Larsson and Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. Mikael has also lectured and moderated panels. Most recently he organized and moderated two day-long script seminars for the Dream Factory, the Swedish Film Institute’s annual, industry-wide conference, featuring script guru John Truby and Deborah Moggach (“Pride and Prejudice”). He’s served as moderator for the Stockholm and Gothenberg Film Festivals and chaired the National Swedish Independent Film Festival (Filmens Dag). Previously, he designed and ran conferences for writers, directors and producers to facilitate independent film production, including one for Nordic Television/TV4. In the early ‘90s, he taught Story Structure at the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts. His filmmaking career began in the late ‘80s with two short films on Swedish National Television. PASS, which he produced and directed, starred Michael Nyqvist, Sweden's leading film actor. FISSURA, which he wrote and directed in the U.S., was broadcast on Swedish National Television and also used as a teaching tool in Scandinavian hospitals. He’s received filmmaking grants from the Swedish Film Institute, the Arts Council of Sweden and Swedish Television 2/Filmmakers on the Move. Mikael studied Film Theory at Stockholm University. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1984 with a degree in Visual & Environmental Studies. |
Cornelia Ravenal has over two decades’ experience as a scriptwriter, journalist and video/film producer. Her facility with words, ideas and narrative has allowed her to move seamlessly between worlds, from theater to international reporting to independent film.
Mikael Södersten has over twenty years experience working on narrative features, documentaries and shorts in the U.S., Denmark, and his native Sweden.