Linda Kandel

Linda Kandel was always interested in ways of seeing and discovering meaning by looking at the past. She thought about perception and how images could often better convey truths about reality than words. She always had an interest in painting and photography and after studying Archaeology at Cambridge University, Gonville and Caius College, she then attended Brown University, where she majored in Religious Studies. She also continued her photographic interests with filmmaking and photography classes at RISD. The study of philosophy and religion allows Linda to be able to flesh out three dimensional characters through understanding motivations from the inside out. After working on a psychological thriller in Hollywood, as assistant to director, Armand Mastroianni, Linda realized that making a Hollywood movie wasn't that different from the award winning student films which she made and edited on 16 mm. Linda then set out writing a script called "Los Feliz", about an aging L.A. real estate developer who becomes obsessed and marries an underage Hispanic girl, which got her entry into the Hollywood community. Then she wrote a script called "Naked Jane", which was in the dramatic competition at Sundance Film Festival and received very passionate responses. It was the only film that year to have unanimous approval by all the Sundance judges to be in the festival. After the release of this film, Linda collaborated on various scripts, including an adaptation of a Paul Theroux novel, a psychological thriller and read Hollywood scripts through her agency ICM as a director for hire. Linda saw that the interesting projects were not abundant and decided to write another original script, called "Mascara", about three L.A. women who were childhood friends, and find that their lives are not what they imagined them to be. She was compared to early Altman, and has a unique and thorough understanding of Los Angeles, as she was born in Hollywood herself and grew up in Los Angeles. "Mascara" features Ione Skye, Karen Black, Amanda de Cadenet, Tara Subkoff, and Steve Jones, from the Sex Pistols (in his first narrative fictional film). This film was released at the Laemmle theaters and was well received. After this, Linda continued her spiritual quest by studying Buddhism and going deeper into the journey of the Soul, working on a Ph.D at Pacifica University in Archetypal and Jungian studies. It is now that she has returned to the film world, with a much richer and deeper understanding of human nature, and has a cavalcade of images waiting to be brought to the screen. Her latest project is entitled "Shadows in the Sun", and is a character study/psychological thriller set in Los Angeles and the Middle East. Linda has also been working on a book about the actress Karen Black, who was her close friend.