To the Selection Committee,
It’s easy to get opinions on a screenplay; it’s tough to get meaningful engagement. I’ve resisted the contests, because they seem so purely hit-and-miss. I realize I’m really not after being discovered – I’ve discovered myself – but enhancing my craft and drawing together a team around Seeing Maya that will bring this film to fruition. I’m a good writer, good enough to know I’m not a director or a producer (yet). For me, the Lab is an opportunity to learn, and to organically grow this community, while of course, preparing the story more completely for its telling.
I spent twenty years prevaricating over whether or not I’m an artist. I always thought some external event, some form of recognition, would settle it for me. Now, I know this is an internal experiencing, and that chapter of my life is blessedly closed. I’m not trying to validate those years of struggle, or show the doubters they’re wrong, or reach some personal goal. I am precisely the artist I feel myself to be. The only question is what move to make next and whom to move with?
Which brings me to Sundance and this application. The fact is that Seeing Maya is exactly the kind of work I want to do, and that the type of people who draw to Sundance, if I may generalize, seem to be just the kind of people I want to learn from and work with. So I’m excited about the opportunity.