We recently connected with Alessandra Bautze and have shared our conversation below.

Alessandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Growing up in the Boston area, I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I have wonderful memories of seeing live theatre and attending cultural events with my mother from a young age. My father was always going to the library and read voraciously. So I was also surrounded by books growing up and having that exposure to Dante, Kafka, Melville, and the like. I went on to Johns Hopkins University for my bachelor’s degree in The Writing Seminars and then took on a second major in Film & Media Studies, where I really was able to dig deep into screenwriting.

Alessandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a screenwriter and Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Georgia State University in Atlanta. I write feature screenplays that highlight protagonists on the margins (often young women in difficult circumstances), that feature a strong sense of place, and that bring social issues to the forefront.

After Johns Hopkins, I then went on to The University of Texas at Austin, which I chose for its focus on independent film, and earned my M.F.A. in Screenwriting. After living in New York, I moved to Iowa City during the pandemic to serve as Visiting Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at The University of Iowa. I’d long admired Iowa as a Mecca for creative writing but I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to teach there! What a wonderful experience. That’s also where I finished Racing the Wolf God, after one of my students encouraged me.

My screenplay Racing the Wolf God won Best Screenplay at the Anchorage International Film Festival in December 2021. Set in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska, this drama follows Kim, a 26-year-old Yup’ik woman and former champion musher who, after ten years in prison, faces the challenges of re-entry as she finds herself back in the world of dogsled racing—the exact activity that led to her incarceration in the first place. I always saw myself as an independent/indie screenwriter, but recently I have embraced a more mainstream aesthetic; in revising the script, I have really leaned into the sports drama, using genre as a way to start a conversation about Post-Incarceration Syndrome, the struggles of women in prison (as women are the fastest-growing prison population, trapped in a system designed for men) and the plight of Alaska Native women in Alaska’s prison system more specifically. Racing the Wolf God is currently in active development with a New York City-based independent producer and we are seeking a director, talent, and financing.

Since August of 2022, I’ve been teaching at Georgia State University and I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by the vibrant film community in Atlanta. I’m also currently developing two short films. I’m currently revising a short script about suicide loss that will be shot in early January with some of my colleagues in the School of Film, Media & Theatre at Georgia State. I’m also writing a short script for Michelle Mary Schaefer, a Deaf writer, actor, and film producer, and her new production company, Annabelle Louise Productions. That project is a bit different for me because it is more of a genre project, channeling The Twilight Zone. But it’s still focused on authentic Deaf stories, and I’m honored to continue to have the opportunity to work with the Deaf community, as I have for many years. I’m very excited to be working with such amazing collaborators to bring these important stories to life.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

There’s so much I could say! But I ultimately see my mission as twofold: to write stories that matter and to help students develop their confidence as writers. Writing and teaching have always gone hand in hand for me.

In terms of my writing, ever since I read Edward Humes’s 1996 nonfiction book No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court, at 13 years old, I have been dedicated to this idea of “making hidden worlds visible” and thus focus on accurate representations of these worlds. That continues to this day with all of my projects. I often write about subjects that aren’t often given a platform in media, but I will gladly step aside if a writer from that community is writing a similar story. I see collaboration as a way forward to avoid cultural appropriation and instead create a system by which all stories can be heard.

In terms of my teaching, one of my mentors, Marc Lapadula, said that everyone has a story, but not everyone has access to the tools to tell it. His words have shaped how I approach my teaching career, providing film students the tools to tell the stories that are most meaningful to them. Because I have benefitted so much from mentorship, it’s such a joy for me to now be a mentor to students, to have them keep in touch with me even after graduation and see how they are developing their own unique voices.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Sure! Resilience is such an important quality for writers–or, really, any artist–to have. Coming out of graduate school, the job search was difficult. There would be times where I would be incredibly disappointed when I wasn’t selected for this or that job but, looking back, if I had been offered one of those other jobs, I probably wouldn’t have ended up at Iowa and subsequently Georgia State. So it was a blessing in disguise. And rejection doesn’t stop when you finally land that dream job. I still experience rejection regularly. For example, I am still seeking representation and it can be discouraging, especially since it can often seem like nothing is enough. But I keep pushing ahead, knowing that the right manager or agent is out there. Despite these challenges, it is such an honor to be a writer and a professor and there is nothing else I’d rather be doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alessandrabautze.com
• Instagram: @abautze
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandrabautze/
• Twitter: @abautze