Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Jane Inwards.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sarah Jane. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Minnesotan bred and Chicago educated at Northwestern University, I now live in Los Angeles, CA where I am a screenwriter. In 2017, I was awarded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for my screenplay, JELLYFISH SUMMER. Later that year, JELLYFISH SUMMER also made the Black List and the Hit List. JELLYFISH SUMMER is the story of a young black girl’s family in 1960s Mississippi that decide to harbor two human-looking refugees who have mysteriously fallen from the sky. This screenplay explores America’s relationship with racism and xenophobia– particularly our reaction to refugees– through the lenses of allegory, sci-fi, and historical fiction.
My mission for writing is deeply rooted in my experience with life-threatening complications from my birth defect (gastroschisis). After four years during my late teens/early 20s of crippling symptoms, multiple open-abdominal surgeries, and blood clots that landed me in the ICU, doctors at the Mayo Clinic in my hometown, Rochester, MN, finally brought me back to full health. My gratitude to them translated into a desire to pay it forward, which I first channeled into creating Applause for a Cause, a student organization I co-founded with Alec Ziff while studying at Northwestern University. Applause students write and produce a feature-length film each year and donate all ticket sales from their red carpet premiere to charity. Students at NU are now working on the organization’s 8th film and have thus far raised thousands of dollars for charity (http://www.applausenu.org/).
Once I moved to Los Angeles, I began funneling that energy into volunteering as a Wish Granter for the Make A Wish Foundation in my spare time. Still, I wondered how I could compare the impact of my career goals (writing and directing feature films) to the literal lifesaving that the doctors and nurses did for me. When I confessed this worry to my dad, he gave me the encouraging advice: “Some people save lives, some people make them worth living.”
This has become a guiding principle for me in my writing; I aim to tell stories that make life worth living by encouraging compassion and advocating for social justice issues, oftentimes via allegory.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My biggest challenge has always been my physical health. Starting in 2009, I began to experience complications from my birth defect, gastroschisis. Daily I had abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, extreme fatigue. I was often on a liquid diet. I had four open abdominal surgeries in as many years, which each took months of recovery to be able to sit, stand, walk etc. again. One of those surgeries resulted in life-threatening blood clots, a DVT and Pulmonary Embolism, which landed me in the ICU. I battled resulting anxiety/depression as my condition continued to worsen, and I had no idea if I would be able to have a normal life. Throughout all of this, from 2009-2014, I managed to graduate college and land my first job in Los Angeles. It was a difficult road, emotionally and physically, one with many setbacks, one that I couldn’t have navigated without my friends and family. Luckily, in 2014, doctors at the Mayo Clinic were able to vastly improve my condition after a final surgery. Today I’m happy to report that I can easily manage any remaining symptoms. The whole experience taught me a lot about resilience, about gratitude, about motivation, and about redefining hope.
Tell us about Applause for a Cause – what should we know?
I’m proud that Applause for a Cause continues to use filmmaking to give back to their community. The students consistently face obstacles such as lack of funding, grueling schedules, intense amounts of work to complete the film. And yet, year after year, they continue to make a film and donate all of the money to charity. To our knowledge, it is the only student film group in the country to do so.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Since my birth, my parents have supported and encouraged me. They have counseled me and sat by my side during my health crises, they have come to every one of my film premieres, they have read my scripts, they have believed in me. I would not be who I am today or where I am today without them.
Alec Ziff co-founded Applause for a Cause and devoted countless hours, endless talent, and an insane amount of determination to get Applause off the ground and three feature films on the screen.
The Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship and my managers and agents were pivotal in launching my screenwriting career.
My boyfriend, Kenny Zhao, is an inspiration daily. And my cats, Arthur and Penny, provide so much love and happiness in my life.
Image Credit:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ presentation of 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowships Screenwriting Awards & Live Read
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