How To Be Louise 

has been launched online by the Sundance Institute!  It's currently available on hulu, itunes and Sundance Now. 

trailer on the home page here or on YouTube   / the 75 min DVD signed by the writer/dir available here and the whole 75 mins. on various platforms HERE.

( please scroll down for pictures and more information about the film and its stellar cast )

How To Be Louise (1990)

1:33   (75 mins)  

Written, Directed and Produced by Anne Flournoy

Venus de Mylar Prods.

MAJOR CAST

Lea Floden / Louise  (bio below)

Bruce McCarty / Stanley (bio below)

Maggie Burke / Pinky (bio below)

Mark M. Green / Dad

Mary Carol Johnson / Sally

Lisa Emery / Nancy

KEY CREW

Writer, Director, Producer  -  Anne Flournoy

Director of Photography  -  Vladimir Tukan

Composer  -  Phillip Johnston

please see:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347203/ for full cast and crew

Short Description

Louise (Lea Floden) is a woman with dreams.  Aspiring for independence from her family, a meaningful relationship and a future as an actress, she is held back by an ongoing and rather serious identity crisis. Haunted by the accidental death of her mother (which she witnessed and without role models. She single-mindedly scours her world for someone to imitate and, with the help of James Joyce's Ulysses and a handsome taxi-driving poet named Stanley (Bruce McCarty), Louise discovers she is the woman she thought she would never be. "How To Be Louise is quietly appealing and unsentimental, sprinkled with comedy and told within the means of its low budget. It is by no means a raw or minimalist film. Complimenting a cast of terrific actors is a strong visual style that shows confidence, control and enormous talent. How To Be Louise offers an introspective study of one woman coping with her own insecurities with a refined poignancy that reveals its sophistication. Filmmaker Anne Flournoy keeps her story fresh and alive with a wonderful balance of charm and wit. "

Long Description

Louise (Lea Floden) is a woman with dreams.  Aspiring for independence from her family, a meaningful relationship and a future as an actress, she is held back by an ongoing and rather serious identity crisis. Haunted by the accidental death of her mother (which she witnessed and without role models. She single-mindedly scours her world for someone to imitate and, with the help of James Joyce's Ulysses and a handsome taxi-driving poet named Stanley (Bruce McCarty), Louise discovers she is the woman she thought she would never be. "How To Be Louise is quietly appealing and unsentimental, sprinkled with comedy and told within the means of its low budget. It is by no means a raw or minimalist film. Complimenting a cast of terrific actors is a strong visual style that shows confidence, control and enormous talent. How To Be Louise offers an introspective study of one woman coping with her own insecurities with a refined poignancy that reveals its sophistication. Filmmaker Anne Flournoy keeps her story fresh and alive with a wonderful balance of charm and wit.  " 

While working as a receptionist at a 16mm lab, Anne Flournoy dreamed of making a black and white feature which would have the texture and mystery of a Flaherty documentary.  Moscow-trained cinematographer Vladimir Tukan encouraged Flournoy to let him help her to realize this dream. Playwright William Hoffman (As Is) introduced Flournoy to Bruce McCarty (Stanley) who suggested Lea Floden (Louise). Floden and McCarty brought friends from their theatre company, Circle  Rep to round out the cast, among them Michael Patrick King, the future writer and executive producer of Sex in the City.

In September 1987, with a $5000 prize from NYFA they set to work in the then-undiscovered Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.  The production progressed in fits and starts until it was finished in the fall of 1989.  How To Be Louise was invited to be in competition at Sundance, in the Panorama section of the Berlin Festival and for a month long run at Jonas Mekas' Anthology Film Archives. 

A 'sequel',  Shorty Award Finalist The Louise Log, is online in the form of a comedy web series. 

BIO - Anne Flournoy / Writer, Director, Producer

ANNE FLOURNOY was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her films, which have appeared in festivals from The New York Film Festival to the feature competition at Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival.  She is currently crowd-funding Season 3 of the comedy web series The Louise Log (Shorty Award 2013 Finalist) which BuzzFeed compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louie.  It's about a New York City wife and mother hell-bent on getting it right in spite of her high-maintenance husband and her over-active inner voice.  Anne's first starring role, in her campaign video for the crowd-funder, is trending 93% funny on Funny or DIe. 

BIO - Lea Floden /  Louise 

LEA FLODEN was last seen as The Woman in Headless at Ensemble Studio Theatre- LA.  She received Dramalogue and LA Weekly Awards for her performance as Cleome in Morphic Resonance at LA’s Matrix Theatre.  Also in LA, she played Hilda in James Mellon’s Dorian at LATC, Nancy Kohler in John Bishop's The Great Grandson of Jedediah Kohler at Circle Rep West and was seen in True Believer and Star of Hope at Arcade.

IN NY, Lea played Jessica in Tim Mason's Babylon Gardens at Circle Repertory Company, where she was a long time LAB member.  Other performances include Short Change at the Beckett, Mummy's Tomb at LA Mama ETC, Nothin Depressin at the WPA, Alan Ball’s Cherokee County at the York Theatre Company, Ari Roth, Dan Bonnell and Michael Patrick King’s Van Gogh Passion at the Women's Project, The Ladder (with Sandra Seacat) at Music Theatre Group/Lenox Arts Center, Mamet's The Poet and the Rent at Circle Rep (understudy), The Three Sisters and workshops of The Diviners, A.R. Gurney’s What I Did Last Summer, Lanford Wilson’s Sa-Hurt/Bottle Harp and Harry Houdini’s Last Act all at Circle Rep, and Jules Feiffer’s A Think Piece at the Hudson Guild.

BROADWAY tours and regional roles include: Bekky (lead role, opposite Eartha Kitt) in Cowboy and the Legend, Barbara in Run for Your Wife at the Morris Mechanic, Brooke in Noises Off (w/Millicent Martin) at the Phoenix, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, also at the Phoenix, Rosalind in As You Like It at the Asolo, Sally Talley in Talley’s Folly at Connecticut Stage, Regine in Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Woodstock Playhouse, Emilia in Othello at the Heritage, Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Kitty in The Time of Your Life, Zerbinetta in Scapino, and Diane in Bing and Walker at the Peterborough Players.  

TV credits include Shannon’s Deal, Jack’s Place, Over My Dead Body, Saturdays, As the World Turns and Search for Tomorrow, as well as countless commercial and voiceover contracts.  (For Comet, she was the original Jo the Plumber, Josephine’s niece.) She will soon be seen in the upcoming indie films Sheldon Remains, Jing Liu’s Fingerprint on the Heart, and Kyle Spleiss’ Cabana Gardens. Her voice has starred in animated TV shows and films, including Space Cats, James Bond, Jr., Disney’s Whispers and The Wish that Changed Christmas. Lea took a break from acting to be a writer, acting coach and a mom, and she is happy to be back. 

BIO - Bruce McCarty / Stanley

BRUCE McCARTY was most recently seen on Broadway as Michael in God of Carnage. Adrian in the Westport Playhouse production of Arthur Miller's The Archbishop's Ceiling, directed by Gregory Mosher.  Previously, The Dew Point by Neena Beeber, directed by William Carden, According to Goldman by Bruce Graham, directed by Pamela Berlin.  For which he received a Barrymore Award nomination for Leading Actor.  He appeared as Robbie the genius homeless man in The Subway Plays at HB Playwrights Foundation. 

ON BROADWAY he appeared as MacMurphy when he filled in for Gary Sinise in the Steppenwolf production of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, directed by Terry Kinney.  Other Broadway: As Is.  National Tour: Mass Appeal.  As a long time member of the now gone Circle Repetory Company he has performed extensively Off-Broadway with both the Company and others, including: Another Vermeer by Bruce Robinson, Endpapers by Thomas McCormack, The Destiny of Me by Larry Kramer, directed by Marshall W. Mason, Balm In Gilead by Lanford Wilson, directed by John Malkovich, Oregon by Peter Hedges, directed by Joe Mantello,  Borderlines, Raft of the Medusa, The Moundbuilders, Moe's Lucky Seven by Marlene Meyer, Babylon Gardens and many more. 

REGIONAL: Two Days by Donald Margulies, directed by Lisa Peterson, Coastline by Alice Tuan, directed by Dan Bonnell, The Woolgatherer directed by Joe Brancato, Belmont Ave.Social Club, End of Summer directed by Kent Paul and more.  Film: The Crow: Salvation, Love Potion No. 9, Blowback, How To Be Louise, True Colors, Tortilla Soup, The Boy Who Cried Bitch, Ripe, Shut Yer Mouth, etc.  He was Micah Simms in the Sam Raimi-John McNamara ABC series Spy Game.  Other TV: Law and Order, The Practice, Profiler, Raising Kate, Judging Amy, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, Mercy Point, among others. 

DIRECTING CREDITS include: Running Into Me, a one-woman show written and performed by Vickie Tanner. The Parts I've Played, a cabaret, starring Dana Reeve, which he also co-wrote with Ms. Reeve, Major Zero by Dean Cushman, The premieres of White Men With Afros, and They All Choose Dancing, two short plays by Adam Rapp.  He participated in the 2008 Sundance Directors Lab.

You can find his MUSIC at MacMcCartyMusic.com    

BIO - Maggie Burke / Pinky

Maggie Burke is a NewYork-based actress who has performed leading roles on, off and off-off Broadway as well as on television and film. Her recent credits include the critically-acclaimed “The Language of Trees” at the Roundabout Theatre and Paul Rudnick’s “The New Century” at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre.

Among her other theatrical credits are “Brighton Beach Memoirs”, “Driving Miss Daisy”, “Sisters Rosensweig”, “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” and “45 Seconds from Broadway” and ”Café Crown”.

She played the role of Dr. Audrey Samuels for ten years on the daytime drama, “As the World Turns” and Judge Georgina Franklin on “Law & Order”.

Her film credits include “Breaking Upwards”,“Six Degrees of Separation”, “The Lemon Sisters”, “Husbands and Wives” and “Garmento”.

Maggie is also a partner in Marigold Films and has made 2 award-winning short films with director Ellen Novack, “Psychoanalysis Changed My Life” and “The Getaway”.

She is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company.