In 2011, I signed up for Chicago Filmmakers' Screenwriting II course to polish a script I’d been working on for years. The idea for a short film about chemistry sparking when an Orthodox woman crosses paths with a secular Jewish lesbian first came to me in the mid-90s at a Christmas party, believe it or not.
I always knew the film needed to be small-scale, which before the turn of the millennium meant shooting on black-and-white 16 mm film, maybe even without synched sound. By the time I got to Chicago Filmmakers, the technologies had vastly improved: shooting on film was more expensive than shooting digitally, and black and white risked forfeiting much of the warmth and richness color can afford.
Early versions featured eleven speaking parts (including children), a meddlesome ex, and a dog named Flagstaff. Back story weighed down the first quarter of the script, and man, was it preachy! The version that went in with me at Chicago Filmmakers came out tighter and and more focused, and much is recognizable in what the viewer now sees on screen.
The script went through later refinement before Hatboxes went into production, but it’s a thrill to return to Chicago Filmmakers with Hatboxes for Dyke Delicious on Saturday, 10 May, at 7 pm at 5243 North Clark Street, and on Wednesday, 14 May, at 6:30 pm at Columbia College’s Hokin Hall, 623 S. Wabash, room 109. Get your tickets here for 10 May and here for 14 May.
We hope to see you at one of the screenings, Chicago!
Susana Darwin
Susana Darwin
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