Vilka Tzouras

Vilka is an award-winning writer/director born in Montreal, Canada. At the age of 17, she graduated from the School of American Ballet and performed internationally with leading ballet companies including the Miami City Ballet. Later, she studied cinema and graduated in Film & Television production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 1998, Vilka began her career as a camera operator, editor and producer in New York and worked on numerous award winning independent feature films and documentaries. As senior producer for the Discovery Group, she spent several years directing & editing video ethnographies for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. Her first film Soldier's Bride, an award-winning short about mass rape in Bosnia, screened at festivals internationally. Her second film Shadowboxer, an award winning mid-length film about teenage female violence, screened in numerous festivals such as The Palm Springs Film Festival and the American Film Institute film festival. In 2003, she was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for her work as an emerging film director. Vilka recently directed a mid-length film entitled When Fish Fly, partially funded by a grant form the Greek Film Center. The film is about the tender relationship that develops between Anya, a thirty year-old economic immigrant from Russia who is the home care provider for Mrs. Fotini, a cranky elderly widow and political refugee from Constantinople. The film received Best Balkan Film and Best Actor Awards at the Drama International Short Film Festival. Committed to creating works that serve the collective greater good, Vilka will be directing her first feature film with the help of a research and writing grant from the New York State Council on the Arts about female gangs in the US entitled AG's.