Amber McGinnis directs both film and theatre professionally and has danced between the two mediums since she was an awkward adolescent Southern Baptist homeschooler. Originally from North Carolina, Amber is currently based in Atlanta, GA where she enjoys hiking, playing with fire, drinking Sazeracs with her amazing partner, and trying to keep up with her badass, world changing daughter who also happens to have Down Syndrome.
In 2019 Amber founded production company Outskirt Media as a stepping stone to produce and direct her first feature length film, International Falls. The film played in over 20 festivals around the world, winning the FIPRESCI New American Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at Ashland Independent Film Festival and Naples International Film Festival, and Best Narrative Feature at Tallgrass Film Festival and Oxford International Film Festival before it was acquired and distributed by Gravitas Ventures. The film stars Rachael Harris, Rob Huebel, Matthew Glave, Mindy Sterling, and Kevin Nealon and is available to stream on Showtime and Amazon Prime.
Most recently, Amber produced and directed the genre-bending theatre/film/musical hybrid, Animal Wisdom, which launched a new streaming platform for theatres during the pandemic. Called the “Film-Theater Hybrid Helping to Make Sense of This Past Year and Beyond” (IndieWire), the film enjoyed an extended run on the platform before “closing” for future distribution.
Amber’s roots are in theatre and she holds an MFA in Directing from Baylor University. The recipient of the 2017 Richard Bauer Emerging Artist Award, her stage work has been hailed by the Washington Post as “intense and visually striking” as well as “polished and perceptive.” Theatre directing credits include Theatrical Outfit: Tiny Beautiful Things; Round House Theatre: How I Learned to Drive; The Welders: Girl in the Red Corner (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Original New Play); Constellation Theatre: Equus (Helen Hayes Nomination, Outstanding Production); Theater J: The Wanderers, The Last Night of Ballyhoo; Keegan Theatre: TOP GIRLS; Forum Theatre: Dry Land (Helen Hayes nomination, Outstanding Direction of a Play), World Builders; Flying V Theatre: Lobster Alice, The Oregon Trail; Pinky Swear Productions: The Last Burlesque; WSC Avant Bard: Orlando; Source Festival: The Uses of Enchantment; as well as collaborations with Alliance Theatre, Folger Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and Water Tower Theatre.
Amber's work typically centers around strong female protagonists because frankly, there aren’t enough of us. She currently has two feature-length scripts under development. Mill Mother’s Lament: The Ballad of Ella May, is set in Amber’s hometown in Bessemer City, NC and is based on the true story of folksinger and union leader, Ella May Wiggins. A piece centered around social justice, the story follows the plight of textile millworkers who dare to desegregate and fight back. Her second script, Girl in the Red Corner, which was co-written with Stephen Spotswood, follows the journey of a struggling single mother in rural Arkansas who learns to fight back against the broken promises of the American dream through the sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).
Next up, Amber will direct the feature film, Buddy, which will be the debut feature from Bentonville Way Entertainment, a new production arm of the Bentonville Film Foundation.
“Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.”
-Margot Fonteyn, dancer