October 12, 2020 / 7-8pm
Our first in this series is with the talented filmmaker, Twila LaBar.
Twila LaBar is a filmmaker, songwriter and producer in central Texas. While residing in Nashville, TN for 15 years Twila was a staff songwriter at four major Christian music publishing companies, Universal Music Group/Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Spring Hill Music, Word Music and McSpadden-Smith Music Publishing. In 2007 she was awarded a BMI Award for her song "Orphans of God,” which was one of the most performed songs on Christian radio that year.
She has received two Dove Award nominations and is a three time nominee for Songwriter of the Year for the Absolutely Gospel Awards. Hundreds of Twila’s songs have been recorded by major Christian artists, such as Avalon, Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith and many more. Twila’s song “Livin’ in the Rain” was recorded by country artist Vince Gill and Southern Gospel artist Sheri Easter and climbed to #3 on the Southern Gospel Singing News chart. Twila has had numerous songs on the Christian music charts (Top 5, 10, 40 and 80) as well as two #1 songs on various Christian music and radio charts.
Her extensive background in songwriting and music production made transitioning into filmmaking a natural next step. Twila made her narrative film directorial debut in the independent feature film, "Blanche," filmed on location in West Texas. Blanche received two “Best Feature Film” film festival awards in 2020. Twila received “Best First Time Filmmaker” and “Best Woman Filmmaker” awards in the Royal Wolf Film Awards in 2020. Twila is the recipient of the Hollywood Gold Awards Silver Award for Best Original Song for “The Miles Don’t Even Matter.”
In addition to directing Blanche, Twila composed background music for the film and wrote and recorded two songs for the Blanche soundtrack, “Saddle Up” and “The Miles Don’t Even Matter.” Country artist Jordan Kirkdorffer, a contestant on The Voice 2018, is featured on “The Miles Don’t Even Matter.”
Blanche is available on Amazon, iTunes and Vimeo on Demand.
Twila is currently in post-production on the documentary film, “Where the Horses Heal the Soul,” about ROCK - Ride On Center for Kids.
