Conversations with Bettina Moss

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bettina Moss.

Hi Bettina, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I relocated from New York City to work in the entertainment business in Los Angeles and landed in film development at HBO.

My next career step was creation of an MFA in Professional Screenwriting Program for National University in San Diego. We proudly graduated over one hundred students who had numerous successes (including a Nicholl Fellowship and Peabody Award -winning student and others with produced films).

I then went solo making an independent documentary titled Finding Daylight, where I followed two families over the course of time as they navigated the loss of loved ones in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This is especially meaningful now as this September is the 25th anniversary.

Finding Daylight is a highly personal and emotionally engaging film that will be available through my website and YouTube channel this coming August and September. www.finding-daylight.com.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A smooth road? No. Challenges? Yes. Dreams of success and creative value fire our passions but rarely provide a direct avenue to acknowledgement and the hoped-for impact on others. We don’t know how complicated the road will ever be so we persevere hoping our choices and actions bear fruit. They may, but usually not in the way we quite anticipate.

Second guessing is the bane of most creative artists. Wishing in hindsight we’d done things differently or better or in a different time frame. If I’ve learned anything (and the older I get the more I realize that I understand very little!), what I try to take from my desire to create things that give others relief, insight or joy is that I can only do the best with what I’ve got and who I am. If that helps people, it’s wonderful and if it misses the mark, well then I just have to keep trying. Because the alternative – giving up – is not in the cards.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Learning to live in my own skin fires my creative work. But it’s a very hard road and I know this is true for many people. When I was younger, I thought that when I got older, I’d understand a lot more about how the world works. Instead, I find myself caught up short, baffled at how I couldn’t anticipate the way things would work out.

Now I find that the primary way of maintaining my sanity in these difficult times is to hold on to my creative through line. Since childhood, I’ve made art and written stories, but I’d rarely put it out into the world and instead concentrated on fostering other people’s creativity, (i.e. in film development at HBO and then in the MFA in Screenwriting program I created).

But that changed, first when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened and my family was directly impacted. Soon after I began a documentary project about grief and how people navigate that over time. The documentary Finding Daylight is the result.

Secondly, and more recently, amid the chaos of our scary times (political, environmental, personal), I realized that I could find tremendous relief in laughter. This may seem antithetical to a project about grief but life is multi-layered and often contradictory, as everyone knows. So, my most recent creative project is a raucous romantic comedy called ‘Catfish’ which turns the concept of who you are meant to love on its head.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
That I contain multitudes. But then again, don’t we all?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://finding-daylight.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bettina0moss/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettina.moss.98/
• LinkedIn: findingdaylightdoc@gmail.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FindingDaylight