Traven Rice

Traven Rice is a New York City-based writer-director devoted to telling stories about extraordinary moments that make up our everyday lives. She completed the pilot for Division Street in 2019 - a digital series focused on a withdrawn young girl who is sent to live with her cranky grandmother in a magical neighborhood in NYC. The pilot screened as an official selection at the Slamdance Film Festival, ITVFest and Raindance, among others. It was featured in the FilmShop collective's Breakthrough Series and screened in competition at SeriesFest 2019, where it won a development award from the Caz Matthews Fund. Rice is equally passionate about writing her own scripts and in adapting screenplays. She has a special talent for working collaboratively on set with a wide variety of actors. Rice is a strong leader and motivator, skilled at inspiring and directing dynamic television and film production teams. She studied at the FAMU Film Institute in Prague, Czech Republic, and at the Vancouver Film School in Vancouver, BC. She is currently co-leader of the film collective, FilmShop, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Lower East Side Film Festival. Rice's first short film, "The Night Tram," set on a midnight train to Prague hijacked by a gypsy band, was nominated for a Student Academy Award. "Side Effects" won an Audience Award at the Boston Sci Fi Fest and the Best Actress Award at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles. Rice is co-founder of Lo-Down Productions, which publishes a widely respected community news and arts publication on the Lower East Side, one of New York City's last remaining authentic neighborhoods. The company produces a wide variety of video and multimedia content for nonprofit and for profit-clients. Rice previously served as a board member of Local Independent Online News Publishers.