A Reflection on 23'
Happy New Year to You and Yours!
My Dear Friends,
Cozied up under the Christmas tree, I wanted to share some thoughts and express some gratitude about the past year. To those who my work has touched, here’s a quick recap of the progress on my projects from ‘23, and where I plan to bring my projects in ‘24.
With relentless passion for my mission and my message, I hope to continue to inspire you to join me in ‘24. If you’re interested, read on…
The Birth of a Hustler
2023 started with a bang. I finally birthed my TV pilot, Hussy (a labor of love that had been in development for 8 or so months) and then thought, what now? A lot of young writers and creators have brilliant scripts that live solely on their hard drive. They get stuck waiting until the right person comes along to pick them and validate their work. But somehow, when you chart the course of powerful creatives, they never did this waiting for the “right moment” step, they just believed, early on, that it was their time. If you know me, you know I’m not interested in playing the game everyone else plays, so I realized it was TIME TO DISRUPT.
So, I traveled to Sundance with my killer script, the pitch deck and a business plan. I went to late-night parties, get-to-know-you dinners, and sat for every damn Q&A I could until I found some interested creative partners.
And there were many, with veteran film and TV street cred, who not only dug my message, but loved my work! In zooms after the fest with these producers, it was clear they were impressed by my vision for Hussy. A 15-year veteran of the business with a film in production with Kristen Stewart, told me I was more clear about my vision than any other writer/producer he’d ever worked with. What??
Meanwhile, I started this thing of bootstrapping my own work - finding investors who wanted to come on the TV show journey; people who believed in my mission. Then some momentum hit - I got a call that a big production company attached to an A-list talent had read my materials and loved Hussy. Even more producers I sat with weighed in to tell me that they were shocked Hussy wasn’t brought to them by a more established writer. A powerful showrunner chimed in to tell me the pilot felt undeniably industry ready. Shocked, I sat in that meeting saying, “What, really, no notes?”
The idea that this show could be bigger than me steamrolled. By April, I began learning the ins and outs of TV: how to get my show to a writer with an overall deal, how to get a production company interested on just vibes, etc. I was nailing it, cultivating a killer elevator pitch, tracking each positive contact, lining up more meetings when…
Hot Labor Summer + Blink Twice
…those early wins on Hussy came to a screeching halt in May when the Writer’s Union decided to strike, joined soon after by the Actor’s Union. What would this mean for Hussy? Standing in solidarity, I couldn’t reach out directly about the project to my contacts anymore, nor could they consider and put together the right talent by speaking to agents. So, break time? Never!
Forced away now from the networking grind, I took some sage advice and developed the second leg to my business strategy; a feature film. While I had originally set out to create a feature version of Hussy, like all creative projects, this new one had a mind of its own! So I let it speak to me. This new film wasn’t going to be a rehashing of Norma’s story in Hussy, it would be a new creative statement about what we’re willing to commodify in late-stage capitalism.
The idea I was playing with sat right about here: In a world where oversharing has become a cash grab, how much would we charge for our ability to love ?
Those philosophical questions birthed what will now be known as Blink Twice, a futuristic thriller/horror about LOVE. Specifically queer love. This film lives somewhere between Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and Get Out. And since it’s a genre film, and since I’m a hustler, I’ve no doubt Blink Twice will have a market.
Maybe one of you will help me bring it to the right investors or buyers?
And Then the World Blew Up
Since early October, like many of you, I tuned into the news and felt hopeless and helpless. I found myself questioning whether any of our creative work could help and heal the world. It wasn’t just me - showrunners I had interested in Hussy weren’t even working because they were so depressed. We all faced this same existential question - does a career in the business of storytelling even matter? I’ll be honest, I was unsure.
While my attempts at Hussy strategy again sputtered, I turned my attention to something I could control - making a goddamn difference. Along with the sex work decrim advocacy I mentioned in the past, I joined ACT UP, an international, grassroots political group working to fight for LGBTQ rights around the world. Throughout this process, I remembered that to be queer is to imagine a better possible future and to tell one's own story is also a form of activism.
So. My mission remains the same: bring a political and social consciousness into the work, but do it in a way that makes viewers feel like there is something they can connect to. I recognized that my creative work was also my activism. It wasn’t a hustle for hustle’s sake. It was carrying statements to those who need to hear it, about the way we devalue those people our society has deemed irredeemable, about finding intimacy in a world where transaction reigns supreme.
Hustling Back On The Menu…
As the year came to a close, and writing on Blink Twice hummed along, I worked to put myself in an even stronger position. With the strikes lifted, I circled back to my hustler grind and jumped back on Hussy strategy calls and emails. As I said before, some creators will wait for the right moment, so as not to offend or upset anyone. I am not one of those creators. I don’t write and act for projects to sit on a hard drive. If I’ve learned anything on this journey, it’s that the TV game moves slow. Luckily, with Blink Twice as an extension to my overall strategy, I am confident that this will be my breakout debut feature, which will only expedite my progress with Hussy.
I’ll never give up on myself or my vision. Thank you for doing the same. Your support and friendship mean the world to me.
Happy New Year and many blessings for 2024!
Catherine