The Super Femmes is a fun and stylized comic book series for the web; filled with satire, camp, sexy heroines, colorful villains, familiar comic book tropes, and video game style finishing moves.
Cast
Vanelle (Cat Nips)
Originally from the Bay Area of California, Vanelle has experience and knowledge working both in front of and behind the camera with local production companies in film and commercial. Her credits include "Psycho Holocaust", "Guerrilla", "Shotgun Kiss", “Remnants”, the award winning "Exhibit A-7", and the award winning "See the Dead".
Leah Caruana (Smash Mistress)
Leah Caruana has been acting since Middle School and has a BFA in Performance Dance with a concentration in Contemporary from ECU. Her credits include "The Strong One", "Parlay", "Ipseity", and "The Super Femmes". She currently resides in Los Angeles where she attends class regularly at Playhouse West.
Jacqueline Carrion (The Incredible Bitch)
Growing up Jackie knew she wanted to be in the spotlight but the acting bug bit when she reached middle school and was cast as lead Imogene Herdman in Cape Fear Regional Theatre's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Currently she studies under JD Lewis at The Actors Lab and is excited for her first web-series The Super Femmes.
Lauryn MacGregor (The Hummer)
Lauryn has a Bachelors Degree from Goucher College in Communications and Media Studies with a focus in Film and Television and studied theater abroad in Paris and Marseille, France. Her recent/favorite credits include Anna in the The Hospital, Laura in The Glass Menagerie with Act of Davie, Miss Austria in STARZ's Magic City, and Oiselle in Operation A Coeur Perdu with Goucher College Theater Productions.
Dionne Johnson (Galaxy Gal)
Dionne Michelle Johnson is from Raleigh, NC and discovered her love for acting in the 5th grade performing in her first theatrical play "Death of a Salesman". She continued to pursue this passion and has a B.A. in Theatre Performance. She hopes to become a professional film/tv actress.
Lee Armstrong (Freckles the Clown)
Lee has generated an impressive body of work as an actor in 75 films. He played Officer Armstrong in The Farrelly Brothers' feature The Three Stooges. He plays TV producer Conrad on Season 4 of HBO's "Eastbound & Down." He will appear in HBO's "Veep" season opener.
Catherine Trail (The Golden Goddess)
Catherine hails from the hills of Kentucky. With a long list of regional and national commercials, she entered into the world of film and found a passion. Currently she has several films on the festival circuit. Have wig, will travel! The Golden Goddess in The Super Femmes has been one of her favorite characters to play.
Sonya Davis (The Emotional Wreck)
A statuesque woman with 23 years of fitness training & 12 years of competition trophies recently discovered her love for acting. In Dean Garris' web-series, The Super Femmes, she plays a saucy, muscled heroine. Sonya wishes to represent the stronger side of a confident, sensitive woman and remains humbled as an upcoming actress expanding her wings.
Tanner Lagasca (Pasta Fingers)
Tanner Lagasca is the author of “The Portable Acting Coach” and the founder of Actors Training Ground in Raleigh, NC where he provides summer actingclasses. He received his M.F.A. in Acting fromThe Actors Studio Drama School in New York at New School University and currently teaches Acting, StageCombat, Character Development, and Scene Study for North Raleigh Arts &Creative Theater in North Carolina.
Don Sill (Doctor Heartless)
In addition to being featured in a wide variety of Independent films and television commercials, Don is the Senior Video Producer for the Carolina Hurricanes in-game show. Working on Super Femmes as Dr. Loveless was a great experience for him and he looks forward to reprising the role in a spin-off series soon.
Tavia Brightwell (Shaorn MaBooty)
A native of Winston-Salem, NC, Tavia jumped on the acting grid in 2010 after serving on active duty in the USMC. She has had the opportunity to work on shows such as "Homeland" and "Banshee" and participates in community theater. She would like to thank her family, friends, and her dog Rocky for their continuing support and encouragement.
Producers
Dean Garris (Producer, Director, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor)
Dean has produced and directed films and music videos as well as corporate, industrial, and promotional videos since 2001. He is the recipient of a 2011 Director's Choice Award for his feature music documentary, Nathan Davis Still Lives, and a "Best Horror" prize at CFIFF for his horror short, "The Man in the Cellar".
Tim Bell (Producer, Actor, Prop Master)
Tim Bell is a professional fundraiser with fifteen years experience as an entrepreneur and business owner. He is a veteran of the Army where he served as a Multiple Launch Rocket Specialist during the first Gulf War. He also has theatre experience as an actor working with the Denver Theater Company.
Synopsis
Download
Offline Press-Kit
(1.8MB)
Promo Photos & Behind the Scenes available upon request
Q & A with the director
1. What were your biggest challenges making this web series?
Money. Basically that was it, we created and made this web series on a shoe string budget. Many of our props were hand made, and sometimes it really showed. Our costumes didn’t always fit properly, and/or we had issues with the visual presentation of them. With a higher budget we could have solved all of these issues, we also could have spent more time rehearsing with the actors, and setting up our shooting days, instead of trying to cram so much camera time into each of our weekend shoots. I think what we accomplished is pretty darn amazing for the budget we had, but with a little more funds we could have taken things to the next level, I’m certain.
2. Who are your influences?
The influences I had for the look of the series came from a couple different sources. I wanted the look and time period to feel retro but futuristic and strange, a bit like Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. The Batman 1960’s TV show was also a big influence as well, as we wanted the show to have some of that campy, over the top comic book action and angles. As far as writing the characters and storyline, those were directly influenced by the comics I read as a kid, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Alan Moore’s Miracle Man, and satirical comics too like The Tick, Cerebus, and early TMNT. The show for me is satire, at its basic root, mixed with elements of camp, sexiness, and colorful comedy.
3. What inspired you to make this web series?
Producing a live action super hero film has been something I have wanted to do for a while now. This web series scratches that itch in a way. With the popularity of the genre in Hollywood over the last decade, most of the recognizable characters have been brought to the screen in live action, some better than others. What I wanted to do with the Super Femmes was bring some of the tropes and storylines that interested me as a kid to a setting like our series and play up the comedic elements inherent in the genre. There are many touches of in-jokes for those familiar with comics, and super heroes or heroines as in our case. Speaking of which, our series is about super heroines, but not like those commonly found online; our heroines don’t get beat up constantly by men, or become damsels in distress every episode. Our heroines are tough, sassy, vulnerable, goofy, and pass the Bechdel test. ;)
Reviews
Coming Soon!
Screenings
