AFI GRANT GIVES WOMAN DIRECT SHOT AT FILM DREAM.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

Not long after dawn Thursday, a vintage Thunderbird lumbered beneath a Ronald Reagan Freeway overpass, the eyes of a film crew locked on its progress.

The scene was unremarkable except for the credit that will one day share the screen with it: ``A film by Joanne Small.''

That credit has been an elusive dream for the Studio City resident ever since she was a teen-age movie buff growing up in Philadelphia.

``I fell in love with movies at a young age. I was watching D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin and John Ford,'' Small said.

``I thought, Hmmm - that's what I want to do. I want to be a director. But I had no idea how difficult that was going to be.''

For nine years she's toiled in Hollywood, working as a sound and film editor, screenwriter and a script supervisor, most recently on ``The X-Files.'' Before that she attended New York University's graduate film school. Every deliberate step extended her filmmaking skills as she crafted her path to the director's chair.

On Thursday she took a seat.

She began videotaping her project for the Directing Workshop for Women, an exclusive program of the American Film Institute, the organization dedicated to preserving and promoting excellence in movies and television.

As one of eight winners out of about 150 applicants, Small got approval to begin shooting her movie, ``Joey Was Here,'' a ``Twilight Zone''-esque tale of a young man driving from New Jersey to Hollywood who gets trapped en route in a surreal service station.

``The AFI has this program, thank goodness,'' she said. ``Finally someone has said, You deserve a break. And I'm very, very thankful for that.''

AFI gives each winner in the program a $5,000 grant and access to equipment. Participants can raise up to an additional $15,000 with which they produce a 20-minute short film in five days, somewhere in the Los Angeles area.

The women's workshop began 25 years ago with a class of beginning directors that included actresses Lee Grant and Ellen Burstyn, and poet Maya Angelou. Grant went on to win an Academy Award for directing the best documentary of 1987.

The program continues to target women who have excelled in other areas of entertainment who are looking for a chance to direct.

``It's all about the nurturing of talent,'' said AFI chief executive Jean Picker Firstenberg. ``Very gifted people need an opportunity.

``There is no other program of its kind specifically for women who have talent in the profession,'' she said. ``It gives them a window to directing that is not otherwise available. It's about that individual vision, and seeing that flower is exactly why we plant the seeds.''

But as much as she cherishes the program, she hopes one day it's no longer needed. She said they're making strides, but women are far from being on an equal footing with men in filmmaking - only 13 percent of the directors in the Directors Guild of America are women, or 721 out of 5,714 as of Dec. 31.

``In this community, there are very, very few opportunities for professional women to make the jump. Now it's my turn,'' Small said. ``To me, the highest joy I can get is when I'm immersed in directing. Everybody should want to go to work as badly as I do.''

On the set, a sunbaked dust bowl of parking lot off Rocky Peak Road, Small darted from the cast-and-crew trailer to the caterer's tent to the truck towing the cars being used in the movie - checking on every detail, cheerfully making sure everyone else had what they needed.

``How's everybody doing? Has everybody eaten?'' she asked. Grabbing her own lunch between takes, she said, ``I've been too busy to eat. I made a bologna sandwich one night, and every time I went to take a bite, the phone rang. That bologna sandwich lasted me an hour and a half.''

Scott Carlson, one of the two producers of ``Joey Was Here,'' said he has tried to act as a calming influence on the set. Like everyone else there, he's working for free - most are friends of Small's, helping her out and looking for increased experience themselves.

``They're excited for her - it's a great opportunity,'' he said, adding that she's the one person he hasn't had to calm.

``She's probably got it figured out six ways to Sunday,'' Carlson said. ``She's a freak - she lives, breathes and eats this stuff.''

Carlson called Small ``the next Penny Marshall,'' referring to the former ``Laverne and Shirley'' star who went on to direct feature films including ``Big,'' ``Awakenings'' and ``A League of Their Own.''

Of Small, he said, ``I've seen her vision. She's got the goods.

``This is going to be her calling card,'' Carlson said. ``This is the first project that's going to have `Directed by Joanne Small' on it.''

But first Small has to make it to Monday. And her lead actor quit to take a paying job, her wardrobe mistress had a car break down on the way to the shoot, and the Agoura Hills City Hall might close before she gets permits to film there Monday.

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3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Studio City resident Joanne Small, standing in the group at right, is making her directing debut on the short film ``Joey Was Here.''

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 3) At right, Director Joanne Small, center, talks with cast and crew members during production on ``Joey Was Here.'' Above, Small watches filming of the AFI-sponsored 20-minute film Thursday in the hills above Simi Valley.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer