Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoe Katzen.
Hi Zoe, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My entrance to film began in the city of Haifa, where I was hired by Jewish and Palestinian directors to collaborate on scripts. While I’ve always been a lover of cinema and a writer, it had never occurred to me that screenwriting was a valid contribution to the arts. The medium came naturally to me, as I’ve recorded my dreams for nearly a decade, and in this writing, I use the present tense, vivid descriptions of setting and action, dialogue, and character tracking. It felt like I’d been preparing for scriptwriting all along! In order to develop my craft I enrolled in LMU’s MFA program here in L.A. It has been an incredible experience in which I’ve advanced my writing, opened doors to industry work, production work, and collaborations with other students and professionals in the city.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Picking up everything to land in a new city has been an adventure wrought with struggles and breakthroughs. Making new community, finding housing, work, and adjusting to a city as big as L.A. was not easy, and involved some stories for the books, especially with the housing. However, I’ve come to love Los Angeles and the film industry for all the characters it holds. It is a place that requires discernment and clarity as tricksters tend to pop up, but at the same time, Los Angeles holds so much creativity, passion, and joy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a screenwriter who works in both film and television, and a lover of monsters. Everything I write has a monster somewhere, be they human or otherwise. I tend to sympathize with my monsters and write them as forces of justice and balance that are misunderstood because of biases within characters. In all my scripts, I hope to provide stories that embrace darkness as a process of healing and evolution, and encourage audiences to confront their fears.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Passion and community are the driving forces of my success. I believe in the importance of my stories and I believe in the importance of the stories of my friends. Filmmaking is a wonderful medium because it is so collaborative. I have always been a person who loves to work with others, even on something as horrifically personal as writing. Being entrenched in a creative community and having the fire to work hard has kept me moving forward, and will continue into my future!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoe_louise_katzen/
