[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: What does the process of writing mean to you? What do you get out of it?
Sarah T. Schwab, Writer/Director/Producer: I get transformed into a different universe personally.
It takes a little while some days to get to that other place but what I get out of it is the ability to put myself into another person’s shoes, body, mind, emotions and live through their eyes even if they’re not necessarily a likable character.
When I get out of that space I feel that it makes me a more compassionate human being because I am asking questions:
-Why would they do this?
–Why do they feel this way?
–Why are they doing this now?
–What did this person do to them?
–Why is this happening right now?
Even have flaws. I think it’s important to look at every character.
There are very few people that are just purely sociopathic.
A lot of the characters that I write are damaged and so to dig through the layers of just the top layers.
I really do like to peel back (they say) the onion, peel back all of the layers of a person to get to know the seed inside of them and what’s been hurt and what walls have been built around it to protect that hurt.
That’s what I get out of it. It makes me communicate with real people differently and see them differently and not make judgments so quickly.
Film Courage: How often do you write?
Sarah: It really depends on how busy we are with production. It depends if I’m directing something.
I directed three feature films in three years starting in 2022 so there wasn’t an incredible amount of writing during that time because I was the writer, director and producer. Then we were also doing film festivals and traveling around a lot during 2020. It was really challenging.
Now I’m in pre-production for two films, which we can talk about in a second, and then I have the goal to finish for screenplays by January 3rd that I started about a year and a half ago and those are in various forms of development.
Writing a lot has been primary for me now because I know once the New Year hits it’s going to be a lot of…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Award-winning filmmaker, Sarah T. Schwab, is a writer, director, and producer dedicated to crafting authentic narratives that connect emotionally with audiences. Through her lens, audiences are invited to examine the human experience in ways that feel vivid, visceral, and often vulnerable. As an active member of the playwright and directors unit at the Actors Studio in New York City, Sarah also remains a valued contributor within the theatre community. Sarah’s most recent film, “A Stage of Twilight,” received critical acclaim and premiered at the Woods Hole Film Festival. It featured performances by Karen Allen and William Sadler, who won Best Performance in a Feature Film. Sarah herself was honored with the Best Emerging Director award.
CONNECT WITH SARAH T. SCHWAB
Instagram.com/sarah_cardinalflix
WATCH ‘A STAGE OF TWILIGHT’
Tubitv.com/movies/100026437/a-stage-of-twilight
MORE VIDEOS WITH SARAH T. SCHWAB
A Stage of Twilight
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