The Project
'Happy Island' is an experimental film exploring women’s physical and psychological representations through a collegiate cheerleading team on Staten Island and young adults living with disabilities at a habilitation center. The film transitions from documentary interviews to a strange fiction; up-close conversations blend into footage of cheer routines at night or ‘seances’ held in the classrooms and dark forests to conjure the spirit of a matriarch. The film takes place on the College of Staten Island campus - a campus known for its complicated history as the Willowbrook State School - an institution for the mentally and physically disabled forcibly shut down in 1987. The film explores two seemingly different circles colliding in parallel universes: the young adults at the new habilitation center existing on campus today and the cheerleaders.
Happy Island is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.
Director: Kat Chamberlin’s short films have been seen across the US and internationally at film festivals including the Chicago Underground Film Festival, NEMAF (Seoul International New Media festival) in Korea, Antimatter Film Festival, Victoria, BC, Canada and contemporary art institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The short film, “The Body Parlor“ was awarded the Toby Devan Lewis Foundation award and is part of the permanent collection at the Video Data Bank archive - a hub of art house cinema and video in Chicago. Kat Chamberlin is also a recipient of a Jacob K Javits fellowship.
Cinematographer: Yoni Goldstein and Kat Chamberlin have worked on several film projects together in the past. Yoni’s work as cinematographer has been selected and awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, Festival Black movie de Genève, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Festival, Festival International du Film Ethnographique du Québec, Festival International du Documentaire et Rencontres sur la Biodiversité et les Peuples, Hot Docs Digital Doc Shop, Globians Doc Fest Berlin, and many others.
Işılay Yanbaş: is a film and video producer, line-producer and production manager based in New York. She worked for various award-winning local and international films over the past decade. She also produced promotional videos for non-profits, television shows for NYC Media, a VR video for the mobile app Timelooper in partnership with CNN and a live-streamed TEDxGotham event in Nasdaq Building in New York. Her independent film projects in development were selected to participate to IFP No-Borders Co-Production Market, EAVE Ties That Bind Asian-European Co-Production Workshop & Market, Antalya Film Forum, !f Doc Lab, Eurasia Doc, Meetings on the Bridge Co-Production Workshop & Market and received support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture, New Film Fund, Procirep (France) and CNC (France). Isilay holds an MFA from the Film program at The City College of New York.
Creative Producer: Clover Morell is an artist, producer, and curator who has collaborated with numerous artists on films, performances, installations, exhibitions, and events. She has contributed to works in the Prague Quadrennial, National Dutch Theatre Festival, Chicago Cultural Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Elastic Arts, Rhinocerous Theatre Festival, and other venues. She was a facilitator of The Field Chicago for over 10 years supporting artists in the creation of new work, and currently supports artists as an independent artist coach. She holds an MFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and MA from Columbia College Chicago.
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