Geretta Geretta, a multi-faceted woman, has worked the globe, from
Northern Ireland to South Africa, from Rome to New York City, as a
writer/director/actress:
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Geretta became interested in
acting during her school years. Although she relocated to Los Angeles,
she began her career as an actress in New York's "off-off Broadway"
theater scene at Theatre For The New City and the improv comedy group
Rusty Nails before she traveled to Italy, where she lived for over 10
years, appearing in over 20 feature films, including
New York City Girl (1982),
The Riffs III - Die Ratten von Manhattan (1984)
and Dämonen 2 (1985), directed by
Lamberto Bava and produced by horror
legend Dario Argento--the father of
Asia Argento--before graduating from The
American Film Institute MFA Screenwritng Program.
Her work in front of the camera sparked her desire to go behind it, to
make movies instead of being in them. She relocated again to Los
Angeles, where she graduated from AFI. During this time she wrote and
directed a number of shorts such as "When Fish Fly" and "Love To
Share", as well as making PSA (Public Service Announcements)
commercials for California water conservation and spots on spec for
Levis. After being impressed by the films coming out of Ireland, such
as like
Circle of Friends - Im Kreis der Freunde (1995),
Lang lebe Ned Devine! (1998) and
Das Geheimnis des Seehundbabys (1994),
Geretta moved to Ireland in the early 1990s. Originally planning to
stay in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for three weeks, her love of their
culture and arts movement led her to stay for two years. She interned
for six months with the award-winning film collective Northern Visions,
where she taught a number of cross-community writing seminars for
first-time and professional writers from both the Protestant and
Catholic communities.
During her years in Belfast, Geretta was the recipient of a number of
film grants, including a Northern Ireland Film Council Study Grant (the
first American to receive one). She was also the first American to
receive a grant to attend University College of Dublin's Writing the
Screenplay course, where she completed the screenplay for her
feature-length film
Sweetiecakes (2001).
Geretta worked as a television producer for Ulster Television,
appearing on camera with her segment series "Geretta Geretta Looks At .
. . " Belfast's first experiment in lite news and later directed the
short film "Homesick", produced with generous materials grants from the
BBC.
Geretta has built on her experiences of having lived within different
cultures. Her fluency in Italian, which she learned to speak during her
years in Italy, was vital to writing, directing and producing "100
Voices Against Apartheid" a collection of one hundred filmed
anti-segregation testimonials from
Odessa,
Billy Bragg,
Miriam Makeba,
Roberto Benigni,
Run-D.M.C.,
Public Enemy and many others for the United
Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid and UNICEF. Geretta
premiered "Homesick" at the Tribeca Film Center and shortly thereafter
produced staged readings of "Sweetiecakes"' across Manhattan to raise
the initial budget. Once Swiss producers picked up the project, Geretta
adapted the screenplay into German, rewriting the story to take place
in Winterthur, "Switzerland's biggest little city". The film was shot
and completed in Switzerland in the summer of 2001, and won for Best
Female Director-Melbourne Underground Festival-2002 and was her first
feature film. Her film
Whitepaddy (2006) has completed
production.
When not residing in Hollywood, Geretta can be found on a small island
outside of Portland, Oregon, near where she grew up, while polish her
new sexy comedy, "The Art Of Spooning".
