Bio
EVA SAKS is currently developing a musical TV series for Disney called GLAD RAGS, with Jane Startz Productions. She is also developing a reality television project with Loris Kramer Lunsford and Kickstart Productions. Eva recently directed a spot for McCann Erickson/Love Our Children USA starring Alexandra Chando of AS THE WORLD TURNS (2007 Emmy nominee for Outstanding Young Actress in Daytime). Eva won the NATPE NextGen TV Award for her short "reality"/documentary KYLIE GOLDSTEIN ALL AMERICAN, about a Chinese adoption. Her new short DIRTY MARTINI just premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (January 2007). Her "reality"/documentary, FAMILY VALUES, screened at Sundance, Telluride, Tribeca, and 100 other festivals worldwide, winning a Student Academy Award as well as the Planet Out Grand Prize, a NYSCA Grant, Special Jury Mention at Tribeca, Best Short Documentary at St. Louis International, Honorable Mention at Clermont-Ferrand, Best Short Doc at the Magnolia, and the Jury Prize at Copenhagen GL Film Festival. It is distributed by New Video/Docurama on their "Best of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival" DVD, which is available on Netflix.
Eva’s teen project VALENTINE’S DAY, a comic 35mm PSA promoting safe sex for at-risk teens, is currently airing on Time Warner Cable and on the web site of the Adolescent AIDS Program of New York’s Montefiore Hospital. This spot, which Eva wrote, directed and produced, received the prestigious Tony Cox Award from Cable Positive, a national associated of broadcasters and cable systems. Earlier, Eva wrote, produced and directed live-action comic segments for SESAME STREET, as well as documentary segments and a music video for Sony Wonder's ELMO VISITS THE DOCTOR. She has also worked for Nickelodeon. Festivals around the world are now presenting programs consisting of Eva's short films.
On the "reality"/documentary side, Eva followed up FAMILY VALUES with her short A PIZZA MAN, about a proud immigrant pizzamaker from El Salvador and his life, liberty and the pursuit of pizza. Screenings of A PIZZA MAN include the New York Latino Film Festival, the San Diego Latino Film Festival, the Pioneer/Two Boots Theater, etc. Her most recent "reality"/documentary, KYLIE GOLDSTEIN ALL AMERICAN (about a Chinese adoption), is currently screening around the world, including the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, BAM, San Francisco International Film Festival, the Walker Arts Center; also Canada, Ireland, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, etc. Eva and Jane Startz are developing this short into a longform called ALL AMERICAN.
Previously Eva wrote, produced and directed the award-winning 35mm trilogy about New York City after September 11th, TRIO (consisting of CONFECTION, COLORFORMS, and DATE). These shorts are currently airing on the Independent Film Channel, TV Tokyo, Swedish TV and Italian TV. They continue to screen at film festivals and museums around the world. Awards to TRIO (CONFECTION/COLORFORMS/DATE) include the Warner Bros. Pictures Production Fund Award; the Caucus for TV Producers, Writers & Directors Award; BAFTA Prize for Best Short at Mill Valley; the BAMMIE Award at BAM for Best Live Action Short; Children’s Jury Prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, Audience Choice awards two years in a row at Stony Brook Film Festival; the ZOINKS Toy Store award for Best Family Film; Director’s Citation at Black Maria Film Festival; the Ojai Film Festival Finishing Fund Award; many others. Prior to TRIO, Eva also wrote and directed the award-winning romantic comedy short, NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK, starring Stephanie Gatschet of THE GUIDING LIGHT.
Eva has worked extensively as a freelance writer, journalist and editor. Her writing for television includes SESAME STREET and work airing on IFC, Discovery, etc. At Yale College, she was the Editor-in-Chief of The New Journal and covered the World Series for the Yale Daily News. She was tapped for Yale's senior humor society, The Pundits (founded 1884), and for Manuscript (senior literary society). Right out of college, she sold her first story to Playboy and has since published in the Riverdale Press, Film Festival Today, Raritan Quarterly, the Johns Hopkins Theater Journal, etc. As an editor, she has edited for Casting Call, the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Economics. She co-founded the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities with novelist Lawrence Douglas and Professor Janet Halley of Harvard Law School. Eva's best-known article, "Representing Miscegenation Law," has been reprinted (from Raritan) in collections published by both Oxford University Press and New York University Press. It is taught across the country.
Eva graduated from Yale College (Honors in Theater Directing), Yale Law School (Yale Law Journal), and NYU Film School (Chair's Award). She has directed and developed new American plays, cast theater/film/television and worked in rock and roll. She is a member of the WGA.