Arla Bowers
Arla Bowers directed and produced Mary PIckford's Gift to a New Generation , a documentary chronicling the Mary Pickford Institute's arts & education program for middle school students in the Montgomery County Public School system (MCPS). She won a Cine' Golden Eagle award for her short narrative comedy Facing the First and created the parody introduction shown at the American Film Institute's Silver Theater for the 2008 MCPS Student Media Festival. She has earned screen credit for dialogue and structural revisions of a direct-to-video feature and has served as screenplay consultant for a number of other projects. Arla has received scriptwriting honors in numerous competitions, including the Nicholl Fellowship and the Maryland Independent Artist Award for Screenwriting. For the past four years, Arla has been a regular presenter at the annual Women in Film and Video Screenwriting Conference in Washington, DC.
In addition to her filmmaking, Arla has developed extensive moving image curriculum, including the "Lights, Camera, Literacy!" courses which guide middle school students to an understanding of literacy skills through visual text.
She has taught animation and film production as well as film history courses for MCPS middle school students and American University's summer high school symposium.
Arla is currently directing her animated project Twenty Questions for Studio Kinate.
