What Are You Fighting For?
Or, why I made my first short film.
Dear Readers,
I’ve been away for a while. Life had been wild and busy. I’m excited to dive deeper into new projects this fall, including expanding my Substack.
But first, I want to tell you about my first short film.
Let’s start twenty years ago in New York City.
When I was twenty, a friend set me up with a receptionist interview at a local martial arts school in Queens. I had an extensive background in the arts, so I was certain I’d be hired. But, after a conversation turned sparring match in which the instructor’s jiu jutsu landed me squarely on my a**, the phone call I received the next morning was not a job offer. The instructor saw something special in me. He wanted to train me to compete.
In the early 2000’s, mixed martial arts was not particularly a viable career path for women. It would take four more years for Rhonda Rousey to bust the UFC doors open, and more for female fighters to headline major events. So, in 2005, after suffering training injuries and keen on preserving my brain power to finish school, I politely turned down the opportunity.
In 2015, I started dating a professional fighter. I held my ex when he cried after losing a fight, ice packs pressed to his bruises. I celebrated when he won, but worried he might get seriously injured or die. And, I felt something else that was hard to deal with.
Jealousy.
Due to a difficult birth, I had to fight to come into the world. I was a cautious child, always ready to throw a punch. I grew up boxing with my father. I became a woman who had to fight abusive partners, who learned the finer points of martial arts as a means of self protection and self preservation. I never dreamed I could be more until my Ex became a champion. But then, all I could think about was the desire to go back in time to that day at the gym to make a different choice. I wondered if I missed my chance to be great.
In 2016, I came across an article about a woman who accidentally fought pregnant. The story accounted her rise in the MMA world, and how she gave up everything for her shot. I couldn’t help but relate. Soon, a story began to take shape in my head about a woman who is forced to choose between the career of her dreams and the family she is supposed to want more than anything.
That story became my feature film, BLACK ROSE.
After sixteen rewrites, I finished that feature on St. Patty’s day in 2019. I won a bunch of accolades, and nearly got repped because of that script. I nearly sold the script twice.
But then, in March of 2020, every offer I had fell apart. And readers, boy am I glad they did.
I did now know — could not know then, that the pandemic would rip through the world and take us away from each other for the better part of two years. I did not know — could not know, that Roe. v. Wade would be overturned and federal protection for abortion would be torn way from everyone capable of pregnancy in the United States.
When that last part happened in June of 2022, readers, I dug up the body-autonomy fight script that had been sitting in the drawer since 2020, and I vowed to make it happen.
With the help of the extraordinary artistic community I’ve had the honor of building over the last twenty years, I was able to fully finance, cast, crew, and direct the proof of concept short for BLACK ROSE.
We shot the film at the legendary Hayastan Gym, where Rhonda Rousey — the woman who busted the doors open for women in MMA — trained to become a champion.
The film is now in post production, and I anticipate a rough cut around the time of one of the most important elections in my lifetime.
If you’re following American politics at all, I don’t need to tell you how important the issue of body autonomy is (and if I did, that would be a completely different article). Suffice to say, that this is the very thing I’m fighting for with BLACK ROSE.
Writers, I hope my story inspires you to fight for the story you believe in too. And I remind you that you are not just the maker of words on the page. You are the conjurer of spirits, keeper of visions, the agents of change. You are the job makers. You are the protectors of our history.
Keep going.
If you need any help, you can read more about me and my coaching services here:
http://www.merridithallen.com
If you need production assistance, here is a link to JusB Films, the full-service production company where I now lead script development:
https://jusbfilms.com/home
And as always, here is a writing exercise for you on this bright Sunday morning:
PROMPT:
FOR YOU: I’d like to ask you to journal about what you’re fighting for in your work. What do you hope to leave the world if your story were discovered 50 years from now? Or 100?
FOR YOUR CHARACTER(S): Spend some time journaling about each of your main characters. What are they fighting for? What are they fighting against? How do they all fight differently? What does their fight mean to them, and to the rest of the world?
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I love this! I had heard bits and pieces, but now I understand more fully where this script came from. Can’t wait to see the short!