Off the Record

Status

Production

Director

Katy Chevigny

Katy Chevigny is an award-winning filmmaker and a co-founder of Big Mouth Productions. She has produced and/or directed over a dozen documentary features. Most recently, she produced DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, which will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, DARK MONEY, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and CHARM CITY, which premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. Both DARK MONEY and CHARM CITY were shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Awards – Best Documentary Feature. She co-directed (with Ross Kauffman) the Emmy-nominated documentary E-TEAM, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired as a Netflix Original. She also directed one of the storylines in Kartemquin Film’s documentary series HARD EARNED, winner of a 2016 Alfred I. DuPont Award. She directed ELECTION DAY which premiered at SXSW and was broadcast on POV in 2008. She also co-directed (with Kirsten Jonson) DEADLINE, which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and, in an unusual acquisition, was broadcast as a primetime special on NBC. Her work has won multiple awards, been broadcast on networks including PBS, NBC, HBO, Netflix, Arte/ZDF and has played at festivals around the world.

Producer

Marilyn Ness

Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont Award-winning filmmaker, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and works as a producer and a director. Most recently, she directed CHARM CITY which premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award® - Best Documentary Feature. The film was broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens in April 2019. Before that, she produced CAMERAPERSON (dir. Kirsten Johnson), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, was released by the Criterion Collection and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards. TRAPPED (dir. Dawn Porter), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, received the Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking, broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens, and was awarded a Peabody. She also produced Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s feature documentary E-TEAM, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and was bought by Netflix Original, and later earned two Emmy nominations. Ness also produced Johanna Hamilton’s feature documentary 1971 which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2014, broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens in 2015, and earned an Emmy nomination. She directed the documentary feature film BAD BLOOD: A CAUTIONARY TALE that broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011.

Weaving fictional elements with real-life scenes, enlivened by original music and grounded in a deep sense of place and time in America, Off the Record is an offbeat and funny character study of a brave songwriter carving a path to have her true voice heard.

By juxtaposing fictional elements with real-life scenes and archival footage, OFF THE RECORD showcases the colorful characters from the alt-country East Nashville music scene. At the center of the film is singer/songwriter EC (Elizabeth Cook) who juggles several gigs a week. She records a live radio show from her home “office” and reads inappropriate tweets from her fans on air. Truckers throughout the South and Midwest tune in to satellite radio every morning to hear her signature twang and wry sense of humor on the Outlaw Country channel. She gets booked on the Grand Ole Opry, for the millionth time, and belts out country classics to a sold-out crowd 4,000 strong. And each day, she sits down to write songs for the new record that will take her somewhere different, creatively and personally.

Enlivened by original music and grounded in a deep sense of place and time in America, OFF THE RECORD will be an offbeat and funny character study of a brave woman in the public eye, carving out a new path to having her true voice heard.