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 has written, produced and directed live-action comic segments for SESAME STREET on the alphabet, literacy, nutrition, rhyming and food. She just directed a spot for McCann Erickson for LOVE OUR CHILDREN USA starring Alexandra Chando of AS THE WORLD TURNS (2007 Emmy nominee for Outstanding Young Actress in Daytime). Recently she won the NATPE NextGen TV Award for her kids’ documentary KYLIE GOLDSTEIN, ALL AMERICAN (about a little girl adopted from China), as well as premiering a new 35mm short at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (January 2007). 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. Previously Saks produced and directed three documentary segments and a music video about kids and doctors and health for Sony Wonder’s ELMO VISITS THE DOCTOR DVD. Eva has also worked for Nickelodeon. As producer, writer and director, she does live-action, animation, and puppets. Festivals around the world are now presenting programs consisting of her films for children.
Eva’s first documentary, FAMILY VALUES, screened at Sundance, Telluride, Tribeca, and over 100 festivals worldwide. It is distributed by New Video on their “Best of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival” DVD (available from Netflix). Awards to FAMILY VALUES include a Student Academy Award, 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. Eva followed up FAMILY VALUES with her doc short A PIZZA MAN, which portrays a proud pizzamaker from El Salvador who lives in New York City and makes Italian pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen. 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 documentary, KYLIE GOLDSTEIN ALL AMERICAN, is currently screening around the world. Screenings include 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. KYLIE GOLDSTEIN awards include the NATPE NextGen TV Award and a Lunafest Award. Eva is developing this short into a longform called ALL AMERICAN, with Jane Startz Productions.
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). For children and adults, these shorts are currently airing on the Independent Film Channel, TV Tokyo, Swedish TV and Italian TV and continue to screen at film festivals and museums around the world. Awards to CONFECTION, COLORFORMS and DATE: Warner Bros. Pictures Production Fund Award; the Caucus for TV Producers, Writers & Directors Award; BAFTA Prize for Best Short at Mill Valley; the Children’s Jury Prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival; the BAMMIE Award at BAM for Best Live Action Short; Audience Choice awards two years in a row at Stony Brook Film Festival; the ZOINKS Toy Store award for Best Family Film; the Ojai Film Festival Finishing Fund Award; Directors Citation at Black Maria Film Festival; many others.
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). She has also been published in the Riverdale Press, Film Festival Today, Raritan Quarterly, the Johns Hopkins Theater Journal, etc. As an editor, Eva 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 currently developing several family-friendly projects. She is a member of the WGA.