Elizabeth Rao

Elizabeth Rao

History

Elizabeth Rao is an award-winning feature film producer, editor, and emerging writer-director based in New York. Since growing up in Missouri, the Show Me State, she has been obsessed with movies. Her work bridges fiction and documentary filmmaking. She believes in the urgent need to represent characters, communities and stories that are too-often overlooked in the current film and media landscape. She is drawn to projects that question existing structures — through using surprising style, intimate storytelling, and bold imagery.

Profile

Elizabeth Rao

Movies

Materna
Materna
Editor
A psychological portrait of four women, whose lives are bound together by an incident on the New York City subway.
Madeline's Madeline
Madeline's Madeline
Post Production Supervisor
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Madeline's Madeline
Madeline's Madeline
Co-Editor
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Madeline's Madeline
Madeline's Madeline
Producer
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Maineland
Maineland
Editor
Chinese teenagers from the wealthy elite, with big American dreams, settle into a boarding school in small-town Maine. As their fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, their relationship to home takes on a poignant new aspect.
First Day Out
First Day Out
Co-Producer
This short was filmed during the Experimental Film Virginia program. It was later expanded on and incorporated into the anthology feature "collective:unconscious"
Millennia
Millennia
A young woman struggles to maintain her fantastical Universe when her love goes sour. As she seeks rescue from her vices of money and sex - faith becomes her sole companion and she soon discovers the only form of salvation will require rebirth.
In Transit
In Transit
Associate Producer
The Empire Builder is America’s busiest long-distance train route, running from Chicago to Seattle. Throughout these corridors sit runaways, adventurers, and loners – a myriad of passengers waiting to see what their journey holds. A touching and honest observation, co-directed by the iconic Albert Maysles, In Transit breathes life into the long commute, and contemplates the unknowns that lie at our final destination.
Butter on the Latch
Butter on the Latch
Associate Producer
Sarah and Isolde share an interest in the traditional music and dance of the Balkans, but it turns out that shared interests don’t always unite them. Their trip, initially a fun bonding experience, takes a southward turn when Sarah becomes interested in handsome fellow camper Steph. A seemingly innocent romantic overture touches off an abrupt shift in the dynamic between the two girlfriends, steering a previously ecstatic camp outing down a psychological rabbit hole.