Scriptwriting Contest Finalists
The seven scripts below are the finalists from the over 100 unproduced feature-length scripts submitted to the SRFF 2018 scriptwriting competition. As finalists, they are entitled to a 10-minute live reading of an excerpt from each script, read by actors, thus offering the writer the possibility to hear his script out loud. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. RSVP required.
March 22, 3:30 PM
Cinema Village
The finalist script excerpts below will be read by the following actors:
Adela Maria Bolet, Tom Bozell, Natalie Hoy, Alex Emanuel, Barry Hirsch, Asa James, Jason Kellerman, Brian Linden, Dominic Marcus, Chris McDonnell, Chiko Mendez, Melissa Murray, Celester Rich, Doug Rossi, Jillie Simon, Fred Velde, Jonathon Wexler, Dwayne Daniels II
(listed in the order in which the readings take place)
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RunRunRun! The Lives Of Abbie Hoffman
by Michael J. Shapiro
After he punks Wall Street, hijacks the Democratic National Convention, saves Woodstock and levitates the Pentagon - Abbie Hoffman miraculously survives decades of a brutal, secret government conspiracy to annihilate him only to come face-to-face with his most lethal enemy: Himself!
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Chasing Honey
by Laura Shamas
When a Tohono O'odham student falls for a Cherokee beekeeper, they embark on a dangerous adventure to try to stop the bee apocalypse.
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The Man Who Killed Hitler
by Fausto Politti
Axel finds his long-lost father when he hears the story of Holocaust survivor, Fritz, about his incredible escape from Belsen that lead him to assist Hitler’s suicide.
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East of Mecca
by Dr. Sheila Flaherty
Sarah Hayes, an American woman living with her husband and children in Saudi Arabia, is drawn into a forbidden friendship with Yasmeen, a pregnant Saudi woman whose life depends on fleeing her own abusive marriage and getting out of Saudi. When Yasmeen is caught and stoned in an honor killing, Sarah is forced to make life-or-death decisions to save her own children and herself.
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American Snake Pit
by Dan Tomasulo
Based on a true story, a young doctor takes over an institution specializing in assisting the mentally impaired and must help save them from a government plot to shut down the institute.
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Shepherding Cassie
by Mike Oborn
A father believes his nine-year-old daughter is sexually conflicted and puts her in a clinic dedicated to modifying behavior when, the town drunk, grandpa, finds out.
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Riding on Duke's Train
by Ken Kimmelman
Eleven-year-old Danny Bolden is an African-American boy living in the backwoods of Georgia with his beloved Granny, in the 1930s. His life is suddenly and dramatically changed when his Grandmother dies and he is left an orphan. Danny decides to take his chances; he leaves his home and heads north to seek a new life. Sneaking aboard a beautiful silver train (narrowly escaping a KKK lynching party), he soon discovers he’s on Duke Ellington’s private train carrying the legendary jazz composer and his famous orchestra.
Script reading - excerpts from the seven finalist scripts
Where: March 22, 3:30 PM
When: Cinema Village
Directed by: Jillie Simon
Read by:
Adela Maria Bolet, Tom Bozell, Natalie Hoy, Alex Emanuel, Barry Hirsch, Asa James, Jason Kellerman, Brian Linden, Dominic Marcus, Chris McDonnell, Chiko Mendez, Melissa Murray, Celester Rich, Doug Rossi, Jillie Simon, Fred Velde, Jonathon Wexler, Dwayne Daniels II
Jillie Simon - award-winning actor/singer-songwriter/producer
Jillie Simon is an award-winning actor/singer-songwriter/producer who's performed nationally and internationally on stage and screen. She's also co-directed, co-produced and performed in two multi-award-winning music videos, “Legalize” and “So Many Ways (For Safe, Green, Sane Energy)” with partner Thomas Simon prior to writing, co-directing and co-producing the multi-award-winning narrative short “Hungry”, one of the films at the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival in 2016 for which she's won 7 awards (3 of them acting awards, and one Honorable Mention.
Jillie was happy to run/direct the inaugural Screenplay Finalist Reading for the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival last year and looks forward to another super year at the fest.