Overcoming Writers Block to Create Authentic Stories On Screen with Alice Wu, writer/director of Netflix's THE HALF OF IT

DATE: December 11, 2020

TIME: 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM

COST: free

VENUE: Online Event

ADDRESS:

Writer’s block – a phrase notorious but all too familiar to creatives and filmmakers. What strategies can you use to combat a block and how can you successfully move forward in creating your film and getting it out to audiences?

Join us on Thursday, December 10th at 8 PM EST as we speak with writer/director Alice Wu about her film The Half Of It and her process writing and getting the film made ten years after her directorial debut Saving Face. Alice will also discuss strategies she uses to combat writer's block, how to create a distinct world of authentic characters that translate from the page to the screen, and how an unconventional career arc led her to where she is today.

ABOUT ALICE WU:

Alice Wu is a Chinese-American film director and screenwriter. After earning a master’s degree in computer science at Stanford University, she designed software at Microsoft before becoming a full-time filmmaker. Alice’s debut feature, SAVING FACE -- starring Michelle Krusiec and Joan Chen and produced by Will Smith – made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired for theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. The critically acclaimed film garnered several festival accolades, as well as a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Film-Limited Release and a Breakthrough Director Award nomination for Alice at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Alice wrote and directed her next film, THE HALF OF IT, which she also produced with Anthony Bregman and M. Blair Breard for Netflix. The script was a 2018 selection for the prestigious Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood executives' favorite unproduced screenplays. THE HALF OF IT stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire and is a modern-day “Cyrano” story about a shy straight-A student who helps a clueless high school football player woo the girl they both secretly love.

ABOUT IFP

Founded in 1979, The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is the largest and longest running not-for-profit dedicated to independent film.

IFP continues to champion the future of storytelling by connecting artists across various media disciplines with essential resources at all stages of their career and projects’ development. IFP fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent creative community, represents a growing network of storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 fiction and nonfiction works each year. During its 40-year history, IFP has supported over 10,000 projects and offered resources to more than 30,000 filmmakers, including Barry Jenkins, Dee Rees, Laura Poitras, Richard Linklater and Ava Duvernay.