We were lucky to catch up with Abe El-Raheb recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Abe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

This is a very timely question given that I’m a screenwriter and we are +100 days into the WGA strike! What does Corporate America get wrong about my industry? Another way to ask this is – what does Corporate America get wrong about Art/Entertainment?

Let’s table Art for a second and focus on Entertainment. Actually, I think corporate calculates entertainment fairly well. If we think of entertainment as, say, a rollercoaster, we can calculate the cost of producing the capital + ongoing costs of production against the revenue of ticket sales. As for the broader societal value of the roller coaster, it’s fairly straightforward. A roller coaster is a thrill delivery system that provides its customers with shocks/laughs/screams ending in catharsis and a release valve for stress. In this regard, entertainment has enormous value. Just imagine our society without a stress relief system.

Okay, great, Entertainment, got it. But wait! Uh-oh… Film & TV, deriving from the marriages of Theater, Photography, and Poetry are mediums of Art. Well now, Art has to be factored into the equation. Well, let me ask you: How do you calculate the value of Hamlet, the Mona Lisa, the Odyssey, the songbooks of Lead Belly, Chuck Berry, or Joni Mitchell, the career phases of Miles Davis or Picasso, The Magic Flute, War & Peace, or the collective work of photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Alex Webb, and Sebastião Salgado? Evaluating the value of Art becomes a lot more challenging for corporate because their measurements of value are limited to dollars and cents. If you look at an annual report for any company, Corporate will tell you that they value things like societal good, ethics, and community stewardship. They may be sincere, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s all secondary to their primary command which is pleasing their shareholders via profits.

When corporate encounters this stumbling block, they collectively decide that the prospect of evaluating art by their metrics is too difficult, so they shirk their duty and treat it as just another commodity. But you and I, and even corporate know that is not the case. I would argue that Art, alongside Family and Community, makes life worth living.

I don’t know the answer to this problem. It’s a huge problem, and I’m one weak and insignificant person. But whatever, I’ll take a stab at it. I would suggest that, to begin to answer how to value Art, we as a collective society should take a long, deep, hard look inward, to examine what we do value, and to consider that maybe the tools we’ve been using to form an opinion of what makes for a good existence on this planet are… flawed, and maybe terminal, and long overdue for a fundamental change. Easier said than done, of course. But necessary.

Abe, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Abe El-Raheb and I’m a screenwriter, who’s starting to diversify into writing short stories and novels in addition to TV shows and features. I’m an Egyptian-American originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before screenwriting, I worked in Oil & Gas Finance before making the leap to writing when I went to grad school at the American Film Institute. I’ve always been a writer but I decided to make the leap when I got burnt out in Oil & Gas and realized life is short and happiness is worth striving for. In terms of my feature and TV writing, I mainly write dramas and thrillers with sardonic humor peppered throughout both. I’m just starting my short story & novel writing career, but I’m trying to specialize in satirical thrillers with themes, settings, and concepts revolving around the topic of geopolitics.

In terms of my competitive advantage, I’d say I have a unique perspective on America and the world, given my background. I’m primarily an Idea or Theme-focused writer, but I’ve learned to channel and ground those subjects through the emotional journeys of my characters. I’m fascinated by finding the low-brow aspects of high-brow culture and vice versa. Lately, I’ve been trying to level up my craft by drilling down as deep as possible into my stories to try to understand and explain why the world is the way it is and try to offer ideas on how to improve it. I also read a ton of history and anthropology, and I try to bring what I’ve learned into my work for added texture. I would say I’ve become a pretty good writer because I’ve learned to treat it entirely as a craft which has helped me avoid becoming precious about anything that’s not working. That said, I’d like to go from a pretty good writer and become a great writer. I’m committed, but the journey is long and arduous.

I think the most proud I’ve ever been of my stuff is when a reader told me that a feature of mine made them cry happy tears. That was genuinely shocking to me because I spend so much of my time living in my head that I forget that my work is released for public consumption. It’s encouraging when the work delivers on its intentions. I’ve also had bad, nigh-disastrous reception to my work. These experiences are always painful, but I’m proud of having the maturity to accept those receptions and learn from them.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I imagine that studying creatives from outside the box is a very puzzling experience because so much of our existence surely seems like an affront to society. I come from a Finance background, so I’ve been on the other side and I get it.

I think it might be helpful to think of Artists in the same way we traditionally view the priest class of any given society. The priests of bygone eras sat around a lot, thinking, really wracking their brains about the big questions of their day, and trying to come up with solutions. They serve advisory roles and provide essential functions to society, even though they don’t produce much (seemingly) tangible value like a bridge or medical services. Artists and priests provide context and direction. We are the grease that spins the wheels.

Because our work is mostly intangible, it can look like we’re being lazy bums when we are almost always “working” or rather, thinking. I’d say that I’m working almost 24/7/365, like a switch that I’m rarely able to turn off. This has lots of positives and detriments, but it’s the way I’m wired. For example, I’ve spent the past month wrestling with a 7-page short story. I’m sure that seems ridiculous, but I know it’s not done baking yet. It’s not something I’ve written to be quickly consumed and disposed of. If I’ve done my job correctly, someone will be able to read it long after I’m gone, and it will leave an impact.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Practically speaking, I would say that my mission is to make art for and about my time. When I first signed with my manager, Jeff Portnoy (Bellevue), I had a stack of new project ideas submitted to him. He threw out half of them – those that were all period pieces, with the suggestion that I focus on the present day. Though simple, that advice was invaluable.

Writing about the ever-changing present can feel like a fool’s errand. We live in a disorienting, distressing, and frequently depressing world. It can be hard to grapple with it and come up with novel conclusions or perspectives. It feels like we all know more or less what’s wrong but feel paralyzed to do anything about it. Still, I think grappling with the present is necessary. Collectively, I think we take a glimpse at the chaos of the world and run away into the comforts of nostalgia and simple pleasures. That’s understandable, and I’m as guilty of it as anybody, but I would argue that our world is not as inscrutable as it looks. Part of the benefit of reading history and anthropology is it gives you a better handle on human nature. Doing so has helped illuminate a lot of our current condition and it’s been more rewarding than flinging my hands up in defeat. For example, it’s been comforting to learn that basically every generation, going back to my ancient Egyptian ancestors, has believed they were living in the end times. My ancestors could’ve wallowed about in self-pity, or they could’ve discovered mathematics, invented beer, and built the pyramids. We all must decide what to do with our time. Choose wisely.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eldashraheb/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abe-el-raheb-541a5329/