Spotlights
Spotlight: Erika Mijlin
Erika Mijlin is a producer, editor, writer, and founding partner of the media production company Artifact Pictures. Some recent professional credits include: The View From Amber Street (Co-Producer/Writer); Virtual Memory (Writer); The Adventures of Teddy P. Brains (Co-Producer/Animation Producer); From Philadelphia to the Front (Associate Producer/Cinematography); and Viewfinder (Co-Producer/Editor). In addition, she has produced many of her own short films and videos, which have shown at a variety of film festivals and cultural venues. In 2008, she wrote and directed Feldman and the Infinite, an original play which was staged for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and produced an accompanying performance DVD. Mijlin has received numerous production grants, including an Art and Social Change grant from the Leeway Foundation, and her company, Artifact Pictures, has recently been recognized as an Athena PowerLink company by the National Association of Women Business Owners. She has taught editing, documentary production, and media studies at the Film and Media Arts Department of Temple University, and the Television Department of Columbia College. She is currently in production on several short documentaries, and is writing a new play. Erika received her BA from Vassar College and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Firm/company:
Artifact Pictures
Occupation:
Producer / Co-Founder
Current Location:
Philadelphia
Hometown:
Pittsburgh
Favorite Philadelphia neighborhood:
Old City
Best advice you’ve ever been given:
The best advice is the hardest to follow, trust your intuition.
Your favorite thing about living in the Philadelphia Region:
Philly is a best kept secret type of place - It's industrial, diverse, green, and cultural. It's majestic and messy, historic and high tech, it’s lovely and it’s lawless. It's a great city in its own right, with access to the other great cities of the east coast.
Your favorite thing about working in the Philadelphia Region:
Philly is a developing creative marketplace, creativity is here in abundance, and the creative economy is not new here, though it still needs an incredible amount of fostering in order to take root. I think it has room to grow, and room to improve, but it also has a lot of room to let you do your thing. Working in Philly means you get a diversity of projects to work on, and a great pool of talent to draw on. Also, the sunsets we see from our studio windows in Port Richmond rival anything I’ve seen anywhere else in the world.
How would you market the Philadelphia Region to professionals outside the region?
Philadelphia used to be known as the Workshop of the World during the 20th century, when there were well-known manufacturers located in every neighborhood. Somehow, this concept still works for me in the context of the creative economy. Philadelphia is still the creative workshop of the world, minus the smokestacks.
What advice would you give to young professionals trying to break into your industry?
Be patient, be flexible, develop a work ethic for yourself and stick to it.
How has the film community in Philadelphia evolved in the past ten years?
I have a sense that the community is getting to know and trust one another as it grows and evolves. We are less isolated. We still have a problem with brain drain, but there is a wealth of hidden talent to be tapped.
Artifact Pictures is a media production company specializing in documentary and animation. The company was founded by a talented group of film and video makers with the mission to create original, innovative media that makes a powerful impression, and contributes to our cultural dialogue. Artifact has produced a wide range of projects, from feature length children's animation to interactive work to broadcast documentaries and individual short films. Artifact also offers customized training for individuals and small groups on a range of creative production topics. For more information, please visit
www.artifactpictures.com