Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Julie Sokolow (born April 3, 1987) is an American lo-fi singer-songwriter, fiction writer, and filmmaker. She was raised in Holmdel, New Jersey and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At nineteen, she released a lo-fi indie album, “Something About Violins”, through Western Vinyl that achieved acclaim from Pitchfork, Wire, and The Washington Post. Often drawing comparisons to Cat Power and Mirah, Sokolow has gained acclaim for her decidedly lo-fi sound; the entirety of Something About Violins was recorded using the built-in microphone of her PowerBook G4. Her music, which predominantly consists simply of her vocals and acoustic guitar, has been noted for its subtletly and introspectiveness. Sokolow has also been heralded not just for the intimacy of her music, but for her awareness of her own fragile emotional state. All of the work on Something About Violins, including mixing, instrumentation, and album packaging art, was done by Sokolow herself.
As a student at the University of Pittsburgh, she focused on writing and film and was awarded a Brackenridge Fellowship and honorary BPhil degree towards the development of her screenplay, The Subvertebrates. She moved on in recent years to direct documentaries. From 2010 to 2011 she was a finalist in Ridley Scott’s Life in a Day contest, won best director at the Sprocket Guild’s Film Festival, won a Creative Capital Flight School Fellowship, and received a Pittsburgh Filmmakers First Works Grant and Heinz Endowment for various documentary work. Sokolow is the founder and director of Healthy Artists, a video-activism organization that produces original doc shorts in which artists discuss their lives, their work, and why they stand for universal health care. Currently, she is shooting a psychological feature-length documentary entitled "Aspie Seeks Love", funded by a Creative Development Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. Sokolow’s work often addresses consumerism and escapism in American society and explores the friction between the individual and societal norms.
