Our 2021 FilmLab Writers' Room!
Congratulations to our 2021 FilmLab winner and finalists! They will join our showrunner, Daphne Pollon, in an online writers' room this February.
FilmLab 2021 Winner
Alice Wang is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter based in Toronto. With a degree in psychology and political science from the University of Toronto, she has now transitioned to filmmaking and is at Humber College studying film and multiplatform storytelling. Passionate about representation in media, she aims to tell LGBTQ+ stories, immigrant stories, and stories about belonging and acceptance. In her free time, she loves to beatbox, play the guitar, and kick around a soccer ball.
N. Eleanor Campbell is a Portland screenwriter whose passion lies in expanding queer representation in episodic television. Eleanor is proudest of her work co-writing and set-producing Kai Tillman’s “Hey Man” which is in post-production. One of her current projects is building the Playwriting/Screenwriting Certification program for The Conservatory Online. Outside of the film world, Eleanor works for Oregon Health and Science University as a Computational Biologist. She lives in South Portland with her dog, Rowena, her cat, Misha, and over two dozen house plants.
Jaime Dunkle once killed 30 bikers and died twice in a movie. She has performed raw memoir and wild tales in Portland for over 20 years. She directed, wrote and acted in ritual theater and performance art as a youth. She appeared in a dozen b-movies you’ve never seen. She has conducted counter-culture interviews for Suicide Girls, reported for The Oregonian and Digital Trends, and has written columns for Exotic magazine. Jaime also dabbled in stand-up and live sketch comedy and considers herself a humorist. Her columns, new-journalism essays, fiction, and screenplays center on the paradox of absurdity and drama.
Peter Hoffman Kimball is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and former bouncer. As a director, his short films have played at festivals on five continents. He is the husband of an ER doctor, the father of multiple children, and the roommate of an obstinate beagle.
Egyptian writer/director, born and raised in Dubai, Nagham Osman moved to New York to fulfill her dream to study at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the American University in Cairo where she studied theatre and mass communications. Two years later, she met the Canadian-Syrian director Ruba Nadda at the Cairo Film Festival who offered her a job on the feature film Cairo Time. She also worked on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Fair Game in Egypt as a production assistant. Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami inspired her to pursue directing.
Sabeena N Singhani (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based journalist and artist. She currently works with CNN, after serving as a journalism fellow at The New School. She received a grant from NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute in the summer of 2020 to begin Ghar, a short documentary that follows three Asian/Pacific Islander women/non-binary folks through their daily lives as new essential workers. Her work centers around home, diaspora, and the gendered body.
Katy Strutz is an artist based in Portland, OR who is fascinated by the aesthetics of stop motion in the age of CGI. She endlessly enjoys investigating how best to capture tactile characters in photography, and believes people made by hand are often the most human of all. She is currently working as a character sculptor on Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio", and has also worked for studios such as Laika, Shadowmachine and Hornet Inc. She is an advocate for pickles of all kinds and is an insufferable, inoperable musical theatre fan.
Luke Zwanziger is a writer, actor, and filmmaker living in Portland, OR. His screenplays have been semi-finalist at ATX, NYC Midnight, and more. He works as the Director of Video Production at Curious Comedy Theater. He loves film and has been board members of the Eastern Oregon Film Festival and the Ruby Peak Film Festival. He runs a monthly comedy short showcase called Portland's Funniest Videos every third Wednesday. He has performed and taught improv comedy around the world. He loves the art of improv because it allows unfiltered exploration of character and story.
Our 2021 Showrunner: Daphne Pollon
Important Changes to FilmLab 2021
How the writers' room works
FilmLab and Willamette Writers would like to sincerely thank Oregon Film for their support of the 2021 FilmLab Writers' Room. We thank them for their investment in the screenwriting community in Oregon!
Our 2020 FiLMLaB Writers' Room!
A member of the Dramatist Guild of America, Actors Equity and AFTRA, Charlie LaTourette's writing credits include Another World (NBC), HOOPS (Divine Theatre Company), Chicken Little Was Right! (New York Actors Ensemble), Franks (Theater St. Peters at CitiCorp), Twisted Positions (Courtyard Theatre) and All The Tomatoes (Lion Theatre on Theatre Row.) Three of his plays were produced by PDX Playwrights. He studies at the NW Film Center, and his screenplay Myosotis Love has been a finalist at the NW Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, among others. The script was filmed in 2019.
Lindiwe Mueller-Westernhagen is a songwriter turned screenwriter. Her first short film, Desmond’s Not Here Anymore, won the 2019 HollyShorts Screenplay contest and will be produced in 2020 by the Seattle Film Summit. Her first comedy TV pilot, That Sister Thang, was Fresh Voices runner-up and has been Finalists in other international screenwriting competitions. She was voted by NetworkISA as Top 25 Screenwriters to watch in 2020. She is also a ISA Development Slate writer and a Stowe Story Labs alumni.
Matthew’s love letter to John Hughes (Don’t You Forget About Me, 2006) saw an overnight bidding war for the microbudget doc, after the reclusive Hughes passed away suddenly. The same year, he also filmed his improvised featurette (Most Likely To), which was called “a potent calling card” by Variety Magazine. Matt's second flick was his critically acclaimed narrative feature debut (Pretend We’re Kissing, 2015) featuring Zoe Kravitz and is now available across digital/VOD/ platforms around the world. He received accolades for writing/directing The Brief (www.thebriefseries.com). His next film, Cherries, was a top three finalist at the 2019 Slamdance Script Competition.
Luke Zwanziger is a writer, actor, and filmmaker living in Portland, OR. His screenplays have been semi-finalist at ATX, NYC Midnight, and more. He works as the Director of Video Production at Curious Comedy Theater. He loves film and has been board members of the Eastern Oregon Film Festival and the Ruby Peak Film Festival. He runs a monthly comedy short showcase called Portland's Funniest Videos every third Wednesday. He has performed and taught improv comedy around the world. He loves the art of improv because it allows unfiltered exploration of character and story.
A native Oregonian, Emily Redinbo lived in the Bay Area, upstate New York, and Boston before returning with her family to enjoy the Pacific Northwest. A medievalist with expertise in ancient languages, she taught writing and literature at Cornell University and Santa Clara University, prior to working for a high tech company in the Silicon Valley. Currently, Emily’s revising her YA novel set in Oregon, a modern retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. She recently completed a feature screenplay about the female chemist who formulated the first effective treatment for leprosy.
Dragos Andrei Dobai studied Advanced Screen Writing at NW Film School in Portland. He has been working on other projects in the animation field, but '770' is his first live-action short screenplay, and he is thrilled to be one of the finalists. His short is intimate, intense, dialogue-driven, with old school east European sets. With the increased conversation about abortion bans in the US, he thinks we have to tell this story. The message of the movie is NEVER FORGET and never tell women what to do with their bodies.
Ian is a playwright and screenwriter based in Oxford, UK. On a whim he decided to enter a local stage play competition to keep busy during a long commute. To his surprise, The Trinity won and was produced at the Burton Taylor Studio in Oxford. He was hooked and has since written two full length plays and two television pilots that have placed in multiple competitions. Never Meet Your Hero is his first foray into webseries and he is pleased to see that all those years spent daydreaming are paying off, as was the plan all along, he swears.
David M. Musgrave is an established sculpture artist, children’s book writer, screenwriter and architect who enjoys the surprise of abnormal art scale, daring and exhilarating color in design and imaginative writing. Waddle, his 12 foot tall steel duck sculpture, stands in a local park and his children’s book Mrs. Claus Who?, is loved by many.
About the Contest
FiLMLaB started in 2012 during the Willamette Writers Conference. The lab grew out of a desire to expand upon and promote the growing film industry in Portland, Oregon.
The Script to Screen Competition is the main focus of FiLMLaB. Writers submit a script, which is judged by industry professionals in Portland for the first round, then sent to our judges in LA for the final round. The winning script is then produced by Willamette Writers, and is premiered at the Willamette Writers Conference the first week of August.
From our 2019 Winner
"FiLMLaB has made my entire year! To say I’m grateful for this experience is an understatement – I got to workshop my short, sit in on the casting process, be on set, watch a couple editing sessions, attend festivals – this has forever changed my perception of the movie-making world and the village it takes to make something good. Not only that, but I’ve gotten to work with and meet so many talented, kind and lovely people that I otherwise would not have. The support and encouragement alone are an awesome prize. Thank you, FiLMLaB and Willamette Writers!"
-Alexandra Keister, 2019 FiLMLaB winner
Our 2019 Contest was supported by a generous grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. We thank them for their investment in our screenwriting community, and their continuous work toward creating a stronger arts community.
Our 2018 Competition
Our 2018 Competition brought a new twist -- FiLMLaB! Writers submitted their web series scripts to earn a spot in the Writer's Room with Showrunner FJ Pratt (Ellen, Frasier, Sullivan & Son). The winning script launched into production in 2019.
Alexandra Keister, a Portland screenwriter, won with her script "Stripes." Her story was produced by Alyssa Roerhenbeck, and directed by Phil A. Anderson. It premieres at the Willamette Writers Conference in August.
The 2019 FiLMLaB Team
The 2019 FiLMLaB Cast
The 2019 FiLMLaB Crew
Philip A. Anderson: Director
Alyssa Roehrenbeck: Producer
Amy Souza: Production Coordinator
Eric Macey: Director of Photography
Efrem Peter: Camera Operator
Sean Conley: First Assistant Camera
Jasmine Karcey: First Assistant Camera
Christopher Alley: Gaffer
Ryan Fitz: Key Grip
Travis Buffington: Grip and Electric Swing
Rory Leonard: Grip
Heidi DuBose: Sound Mixer
Jade Harris: Production Designer/Costumer Designer
Kameron Gates: Makeup Artist
Jon Dragt: Script Supervisor
Ashley Blincow: Production Assistant
Proudly Supported By
Companies and Organizations
Regional Arts and Culture Council
Gearhead Production Rentals
Deep Sea Pictures
Koerner Camera
Galaxy Sailor Productions
Canby Film Festival
Klamath Film Festival
Individuals
FJ Pratt
Phil Anderson
Alexandra Keister
Eric Macy
Jade Harris
Efrem Peter
Heidi DuBose
Kameron Gates
Glenn McCumber
Jessi Walters
Raquel Mansell
Randall Jahnson
Stefen Feuerhardt, Attorney at Law
Amy Souza
Kate Ristau
Donations
Nicholas Restaurant
Off the Waffle
Crater Lake Soda
Xylem Cider
Ecliptic Brewing
New Cascadia
Hot Lips Pizza
Nossa Familia Coffee
Heathman Hotel
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