Writers Guild of America Panel - Writers Guild Theatre (Beverly Hills, CA) - Thursday, February 8, 2007

by Suzanne Baran
20 February 2007

Yes, it sure was an evening “Beyond Words” at The Writers Guild of America’s annual panel of Oscar-nominated screenwriters, sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter.

Original and adapted screenplay writers from the following movies were present: Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Borat, The Devil Wears Prada and Stranger than Fiction.

Moderator and Hollywood Reporter film reporter BORYS KIT handed each writer a penny and asked him or her to relate what was going on in their lives during the year inscribed on the coin.

TODD FIELD, co-writer of the adapted screenplay for Little Children fingered a penny made in 1981. His experiences were startling.

In 1981, he was 8 and I was 6. And when I had turned 8, the same thing had happened to me: Both our mothers read our journals.

He joked that “Lutherans who made Catholics look bad” raised him. His mom punished him for speaking his mind and relating the truth behind goings-on(s) at home. The trauma of his mother’s violation of privacy made him to quit writing for a bit. He kept worrying about his mother looking at his stuff. (This, too, happened to me throughout my young life.)

Back to the forum, Babel writer GUILLERMO ARRIAGA said his penny’s year was a time when he was diagnosed with a severe heart condition.

“My heart was swollen, the doctor said.” He was given a few years to live. He peered down at his hands at that time, and said, “The hands of everyone will become the hands of a corpse.” He continued, “I must create something with my hands.” He began to write furiously and hasn’t stopped. This is how the story of 21 Grams was born.

Later on, he talked about how we are the people we surround ourselves with—our identity is created by those we love and those who love us. And when someone dies, part of your identity is lost, too.

He told a Native American parable about two souls. People are given two souls—one light, one heavy. One leaves three years before a person dies. People are remiss and lost, not sure whom to follow and seek wisdom while frolicking through this forest of life.

Whom can one follow? Who knows about life and death while living? Women who are menstruating.

“Possible life is leaving the body, and the wisdom of what’s going on between life and death is carried by menstruating women,” he explained. They expel life while living at the same time. So both death and life occur simultaneously.

Whether you agree or not, this is coming from an atheist, who believes, like most Buddhists, that heaven and hell are here on earth.

The main theme from the evening was one that I simply relished hearing: The time is ripe for a new counter-culture—anti-corporate life is more of an adventure than climbing a ladder, and emotional payoff—in films and in life, (and from all money chasers)—is rare these days.

Filed under events film