Portable Presents: Visionary Directors of 2011

Lena Dunham

25 year-old Lena Dunham broke out last year with her mumblecore feature Tiny Furniture (shot mostly in her parents’ apartment). Not only did she direct it, but wrote and starred in it too. The film got her a deal with producer Judd Apatow for an original HBO series called Girls (coming next spring), which she also writes, directs and stars in.

The teaser, which came out this week, reveals that the series is very similar in character, story and style to Tiny Furniture (educated-and-broke-20-something-not-really-making-it-NYC) …but that’s just fine; her flavor of comedy deserves more airtime, and it’ll be a treat to watch this filmmaker’s voice evolve over the course of a series.

Girls premieres in April 2012.