Partnership and Making Movies: A Conversation Between Collaborators
Article by Melissa Skirboll and Penny Jackson
Developmentally Edited by Alexandra Hidalgo
Copyedited and Posted by Iliana Cosme-Brooks
Melissa (Director):
It would be impossible for me to talk about making Greetings From Sarajevo without including Penny Jackson. Penny wrote the screenplay based on her short play Directions. Together we turned it into a film.
Penny (Writer):
I once heard a notable person say that the most important lesson he learned in life was finding the right partner. Collaboration is a tricky relationship. You need to find someone who thinks like you but also does not think like you. Melissa and I don’t always agree about every moment, but we are always able to communicate effectively in finding a resolution.
Melissa:
There’s a special kind of magic that happens when you find the right collaborative partners. Greetings From Sarajevo was born out of such a union. Penny came up with the story, I translated it to film. But neither one of us did it alone.
Penny Jackson and I both had plays in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity when we met in 2010. We worked together shortly after, when Penny was asked by Dixon Place Theater to adapt some of her short stories for the stage from her newly published short story collection L.A. Child and Other Stories. She asked me to direct, and a successful partnership was born; I went on to direct her plays Bowery Street Blues and Phoenix before turning my attention to film.
In 2016 I had adapted my short play Show & Tell Tango into a short film. To my surprise and joy, I found filmmaking to be a great fit. I fell in love with every aspect, from pre-production to the first public screening and every step in between. I love the teamwork and collaborative nature of filmmaking.
Once Show & Tell Tango was finally finished and out on the festival circuit, I was eager to start another film. Penny approached me about turning one of her pieces into a screenplay. My Dinner With Schwartzey, one of the stories we had first staged together at Dixon Place, was the piece that got us both excited. It was timely with its echoes of Weinstein and #metoo, plus it was something that would be visually stunning.
My Dinner With Schwartzey takes a nuanced, comic look at a young woman’s journey “through the looking glass” into a downtown NYC rock scene that is both seductive and destructive. Fiona, a precocious 16-year-old who dreams of rock stardom, has become the “special friend” of Schwartzey, a powerful music producer with a penchant for teenage girls. He introduces her to a surreal scene filled with the rich and famous and fueled by excess. Whether Fiona will succumb to Schwartzey’s seductions or find her way out with her innocence intact is the question at the center of this dark comedy.
The original story was told from the adult Fiona’s point of view. Our first challenge was to turn a memory piece into something present and active. We went back to the night of the dinner, homed in on the parts of the story that were visually exciting, and told the story through the eyes of our 16-year-old protagonist, who wasn’t an altogether reliable narrator.
It was a challenge well met. My Dinner With Schwartzey has played at festivals worldwide and has won multiple awards in more than ten categories. Obviously, when Penny showed me her new screenplay, Greetings From Sarajevo, I was interested.
Penny:
In 1996, I volunteered as an ESL teacher at The English Speakers Union in midtown Manhattan. Most of my students were Bosnian Muslim men who found jobs working in apartment buildings as doormen or porters. They learned English quickly by speaking with the apartment residents.
At first, they were reluctant to discuss the war, but eventually they started to open up to me. Many saw their fathers or brothers leave home never to return. One student was hidden in his basement for days without water or food. Several had post-traumatic stress syndrome and would jump at any loud sound.
While the men shared their own stories of terror, they did not discuss their wives or daughters much. I think the horrors the women endured were too personal and painful to share with their female, American teacher.
A Bosnian-Muslim woman who worked as a cleaning lady for many people in my building told me about the mass rape camps in her country and the Serbian generals who ordered their men to sexually assault daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. She was shocked that one of the most notorious Serbian Generals, Radovan Karadzic, had been hiding in plain sight in Belgrade, working as a holistic doctor.
Later, I visited Bosnia and spoke to many who had lived through the war. Twenty-five years was still only yesterday to so many. The older people who lived through the war spoke of revenge—the younger generation seemed more interested in reconciliation.
I decided to explore these two points of view in what was originally a short play titled Directions. I wondered if I could transform this play into a screenplay, since I wanted to develop the story and the characters further.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to transform the play into a screenplay. For the stage, I had set all of the action in the laundry room. Melissa helped me take the action outside, to the streets of Broadway, the subway, Times Square, and ultimately a children’s playground. She is also responsible for finding the haunting images of the war-ravaged town in Bosnia at the end of the film.
Melissa:
I had seen the play when it first was staged and thought it was very moving. The play is a two-hander set in the basement laundry of a hotel, where Sofia, a survivor of the genocide, gives the younger assassin, Hana, directions on how to find her tormentor. I knew we had to move the action out onto the street. By turning Sofia’s Directions into a voiceover and following Hana, we keep our focus on Hana’s journey through New York City.
When I work with drama, I believe whenever there is darkness there is light. One example we found for humor was when Hana, a first-time visitor, had to swipe her Metrocard multiple times to get through the turnstile. It’s an experience that every person who’s ever ridden the New York City subway has experienced.
Penny:
My process as a screenwriter is perhaps different from other writers. Since I am originally a novelist and short story writer, I first write screenplays as short stories. Greetings From Sarajevo was originally a short story written at The Kenyon College Writers Conference six years ago. Then I adapted it into a play, and Melissa helped me transform it further into a screenplay. I still find translating dialogue into visual action difficult!
Writing advice I have always found useful is to enter late and exit early. Too many films and plays take too long to begin and end. With Greetings From Sarajevo, I wanted the conclusion of the film to be one that would have the audience engaged and curious. That’s what I love about the festivals—the talkbacks. I love to answer questions and hear what my audience thought about our film. We’re often asked what Hana whispers in Sofia’s ear at the end, and we love hearing what people believe she said. The question “Does revenge bring redemption?” is often raised as well. The audience’s different viewpoints are always fascinating to hear.
Melissa:
This story of two Bosnian women who survived atrocity could be the story of any women who have survived any conflict. The villain of the piece, Stanislav, is predicated on the real-life story of Radovan Karadzik, but it is also reflected in stories of Nazi war criminals found decades later living quiet lives, hiding in plain sight.
Beyond the challenge of adapting this story from stage to screen, I was intrigued by the moral grey area at the heart of the story. How does one survive the worst? Is forgiveness or redemption possible? Does vengeance serve justice? Can you ever really escape the past?
Penny:
This film is dedicated to all the bravery of all the Bosnian Women during their country’s conflict. There were Serbian women who were victims too. When does revenge turn into forgiveness? As Gandhi once wrote, “An eye for an eye and the world goes blind.”
Screenings of Greetings From Sarajevo can be found by visiting its Facebook and Twitter. My Dinner with Schwartzey is also on Facebook and Twitter. Connect with Melissa by visiting her profile.