What motivated you to become a writer?

I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember.  I loved reading as a child and was never without a book in my hand.  In high school I was encouraged by my English teacher and I wrote daily, quite often poetry.  When I went to college, my intent was to achieve a degree with a double major of Art and English and hoped to write and illustrate children’s books with my sister Ellen who was an artist.  Unfortunately Ellen’s life ended tragically during my first year of college and my life took a different trajectory.  I stopped reading and writing at that time, got married and raised two children.  A year or so ago, some fifty years later,  I was reminded of my strong desire to write by two strangers who, within a week of each other, after some back and forth emails, randomly asked if I’d ever thought about writing … and two years later, here I am trying to navigate the complete unknown and enjoying every minute of it.

Starting on a blank page is not easy- where does your creativity come from?

I used to wait for the big idea to come before I put pen to paper… but now I realize that just sitting down and writing, the ideas come… and I no longer worry about whether it’s good or bad…because the good comes with the bad. The tares and the wheat grow together until the harvest.  I also have a much clearer view of who I am as a writer, so I’m not chasing rainbows of imagination.  I like stories of compassion, heartbreak, hope, complexity and real life.  I’ve lived a lot of it, and I understand it.  This depth of feeling simply flows out of me.

Do you write projects knowing that so many other factors need to happen to get it to screen and does that come into your project creation?

I’m a watercolor artist and I’ve spent a lot of time bumping into closed doors.  I don’t mind a shortcut…the more I know how it all works, the faster I can move from creativity to production.  It’s been a great learning experience to look at what’s in front of you… and build it into something creative instead of transporting your imagination 3000 miles away to write about something you don’t know all that much about anyway.  I’m looking for authenticity.  That doesn’t require a huge crew and a complicated shoot.

What is your dream for this project and what other ancillary revenue do you think it could generate?

The script for my short “The Lottery (Galina’s Story)”  is based on the life of my Ukrainian friend.  I have known her for about 20 years and have listened to her stories of how she and her family came to the U.S. 30 years ago.  My short term goal is to have my short produced in high quality that showcases my writing style and hopefully some high quality directing, acting and filming.  I’d like to have a hand in the directing, because I have a very clear vision of this story, but I really want it to be professional. So, my dream is to find a way to hire the professionals that will make this short impressive and moving. I have other stories that I can experiment with on a lower level…but this story is too important to me.

My ultimate goal would be to make a feature film…because there’s enough in this story to do that.  My concept at this time for the feature film project starts with the emotional short where Galina and her family win the lottery that allows them to come to the United States to start a new life, but in order to do that they must leave Galina’s mother behind.  I have already written an additional 16 or so pages that takes them from Ukraine to NYC. I envision going back in time at that point to give more of the backstory…and even history… that led up to the lottery and their move to the U.S.  I then think that the story would pick up briefly in NYC and give an overview of their 30 years in Connecticut, raising their children, trying to find any job that will put food on the table.  We then arrive at four years ago, when they sponsor Galina’s nephew and his wife to come to the U.S. as the war breaks out in Ukraine, and finally their return to Poland with their 2 year old daughter due to the changing attitudes about immigration in the U.S.

Although it’s a true story, I believe it has significant dramatic elements that will move the viewer, and perhaps give them a better understanding of immigrants and the sacrifices they make to start all over in a new place.  Beginning with Galina’s emotional goodbye with her mother and ending with the abrupt and emotional goodbye between Galina and her nephew’s family (especially their little daughter who is like a granddaughter to Galina) creates a beautiful, yet heartbreaking arc for this story.

How has your experience been with screenwriting contests for this project so far?

I have only submitted the script to two contests. I was very encouraged by the coverage I received from the CFSC contest because I’m just starting out on this journey and I have believed that I could be a writer, but I never knew how to go forward.  All of a sudden, my work is being perceived as viable.  The coverage was very respectful and supportive. It gave me a lot of hope.

I just received the feedback from the second contest, which was brief, but thought-provoking nonetheless.  In fact, the reader’s suggestion for revisions made such sense that I have already implemented the changes in an updated version of the short which would make it far more viable for filming… a one-act, two actor short… I think it’s 9 or 10 pages…filmed in one location.  My new version is still very powerful and loses nothing but gains much.  It could be a beautiful showcase for my writing and the acting…characters with depth, and a story that is incredibly moving.

If you could stand in a room full of investor partners looking at many projects what would you like them to know about you and this project?

There seems to be no bottom to the depth of this story.  When I wrote the original short just a few months ago, the nephew and his family were still living here and planning to stay and have a whole new life.  He had a good job and they had started their family.  The decision they were forced to make because of things beyond their control took only three months to become reality and there was little time for goodbyes.  So the story itself has been evolving as I have been putting words on the page.

Galina is a character of great complexity.  She was learning calculus in grade school and was a respected engineer in Ukraine.  She was once listed as one of the top 100 engineers in the United States.  At work, she was (and is) treated like a buffoon because she speaks in broken English.  She can understand multiple languages, but her speech has not reached complete fluency.  I know first hand how she was treated at work  because that’s where I met her.

I believe that this project is very important in today’s political environment.  The history that I hope to include takes Galina’s perspective from before she came here and compares it to her understanding of what is going on here and now.  She is very fearful of where we are heading.  My story includes the ramifications of the corruption we’re seeing now in the US, and how it is impacting the real lives of real people.  Although not addressed in the short, it was corruption that created the situation that Galina and her husband found themselves in where they were working full time without pay.

I believe this story is powerful because of its truth… it’s not just made up drama.  I know in my heart that this needs to be produced.  I just have to find the right partners to get it done. I do recognize that it is a complicated story to film due to it being true and taking place in different countries and cities along the way.

Do you have any website links for your writing, credits, background, etc that you would like to share

This is my first short, so I don’t have anything to share with you.  You can see my artwork at PattiMaher.com if you’d like to see the visual side of my artistry.  I consider my artwork “visual poetry” and I feel there is a poetic nature to my screenwriting in its frugality… I call it elegance … in both the written form and visual.