Field Notes From A Saturn Return
Multi-Media Memoir
Current State: Thoroughly Outlined, Draft in Process and due September 1, 2021.
Every 27-29 years Saturn returns to its original place in a person’s astrological chart. According to astrology, this is the threshold into adulthood. There is a central theme in the time leading up to the Saturn return and in the time after the cycle comes to completion: What are you taking with you? What are you leaving behind?
Over the course of 4 years, Sam (they/them) has documented the journey of wrestling with this question. There have been partnered road trips, solo road trips and international getaways, career pivots, mental health diagnoses, deaths, loves, drugs and sex along the way.
Committed to telling a story through whatever medium it can best be understood, Sam has cultivated a collection of original paintings, photographs and script-format scenes to create a cohesive multi-media memoir, documenting the journey into the underworld of understanding their soul’s journey and what it will take to remain committed to healing between the years of 2017-2021, with flashbacks to their childhood, family, lovers, travels and dreams.
Photo series to come: “Home” documenting the 13 homes I grew up in around Southern California, to be used as chapter “dividers” for introductions to flashback
FEATURE SCREENPLAYS
Poppy
Feature- Drama
2004, the suburbs of LA. A man in his late 50’s takes his own life when he finds himself in financial ruin. A 13 year old girl, fresh to a new town, loses her grandfather to suicide. The ending of her grandfather’s life was the beginning of adulthood for a child still in puberty. Sadie, lanky and awkward, navigates a new middle school, budding queer sexuality and the suicide of her grandfather.
Nadia
Feature- Drama
A late twenties recovering addict leaves her girlfriend and home in New York City to escape anxious boredom in exchange for a new job (& new life) in Los Angeles. But when she meets Jiffy, an aimless has-been with a pension for coke and danger, she’ll be lucky to keep herself in one piece.
Oh, Baby*
Co-written with Panda Landa
Feature- Comedy
A non-binary artist and their partner leave a dreamy farm-stay when they get their chance to have top surgery. But gender dysphoria strikes hot when they find out they are pregnant and unable to achieve their top surgery dream.
*Placed as Finalist in Film Freeway Screenplay Festival
TV & SHORTS
High Maintenance: Spec Script
Heather returns to NYC to visit her millennial children and tend to her daughter’s facial feminization surgery. The Guy is confronted about future children, then a strange interaction with a traveling man.
Out of Water
Original Pilot- Drama/Comedy
Forced to move home to Joshua Tree, California after a failed stint as a stand up comedian in NYC, Sam is reintroduced to long lost friends and old fauxs. She’s just trying to make a buck and get back on her feet, but will her abusive stepdad get in the way of her survival- again?
He Knows
Short- 6 minutes- Horror (written for NYC Midnight Challenge)
A young college student travels from New Hampshire to The South Pole to work as a research assistant. But will the distance be enough to escape the traumatic death of her father?
Liz & Theo
Short- 23 pages- Comedy
Liz and Theo have become new parents!- and completely lost themselves in the process. Seeking a reset, Liz sends her partner away for the weekend and invites her mother to come help with the baby. Sometimes a little space is all you need- right?
The Reinhart Daughters (written for NYC Midnight Challenge)
Short- 6 minutes - Thriller
Sophia Reinhart died in a car crash behind her high school sixteen years ago. So how is it that she's walking down the road, teenage angst still fully intact?
The Space That Holds Us (watch via Link here)
Short- 7 minutes- Drama
*Produced for the 24 Hour Film Festival
Sadie just wants to enjoy an evening to herself but finds it hard to relax when her boyfriend comes home early.