TRACIE

Named to IFC's "Icons and Film Innovators", Tracie Laymon is an independent writer and director hailing from Houston and Austin, Texas. Tracie moved to Russia at 14 and attended the American School of Moscow. Back in Houston, she was accepted into the magnet program at Bellaire Foreign Language Academy, focusing on Russian language studies, and later returned to Moscow as a foreign exchange student. At 17, she survived a near-fatal accident and learned to walk again through an extended period of intense rehabilitation... While studying at the University of Texas, Tracie interned for Richard Linklater's company Detour Film ("Boyhood", "Dazed and Confused"), worked as a photographer and video journalist for Time Warner News, and directed multiple short films and award-winning music videos in the Austin area.