We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Georgia Menides. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Georgia below.
Georgia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
26, back at home, living with my parents in Worcester, MA due to many exuberant and admittedly inconsiderate youthful mistakes and burned bridges. My mom, always the wise advice giver suggested I intern at the local public access station, and build a new network of contracts and references., and start my career over.
Before YouTube, the only way for someone to make and distribute media content was through large corporate machines. Joe Smith with his local show about gardening would never see the light of day. back then. Ralph Nader began a beautiful movement. Insisting the media was a basic right of human existence, he launched an initiative, where almost every city in the USA had a station, cameras, tripods, lights, sound mixing, and video editing equipment free for the residents to do whatever they wanted (within reason).
WCCA TV 13 had a visionary station manager (name changed) Mason D. He treated the channel like a regular TV channel investing in expensive equipment and had shows broadcasted on public access stations nationwide. He liked that I came there from New York and had a career in high-profile (at the time) films and plays.
He read one of my scripts and loved it! I was hoping that meant that the station would fund this script but instead, he had a 1000 grant for someone to adapt Rae Raphael’s – “The People’s History of the American Revolution.”
In this book, Ray proposes that the American Revolution started a year before the famous gunfire at Concord and Lexington. He believes the revolution started In Worcester Massachusetts at a courthouse. on April 24th, 1774, where a nonviolent protest stopped the British Court from trying any American cases …for the rest of history. Always rooting for the “people” he pointed out how this protest was led by farmers and artisans.
My interpretation was that he was speaking directly to me and my “why can’t do away with the violence” political views. Why do we define a revolution by the firing of a gun? What kind of tone has that set as the gold standard of political change? Some of the most powerful country-changing revolutions were non-violent (Earth Day, The Women’s movement). Most of the violent ones end with each country a lot worse off. At the time, we were on the brink of going to war with Iraq. I was sure George W Bush was in 911, Michael Moore was my hero, and I hated the military-industrial complex.
As I was writing the script, already embroiled in the Stop the War movement, I decided to add a modern element to the story. The movie took place 1/2 in 1774 and then 1/2 in 2003 aka the present. A group of actors come into town to do a play about “The People’s Revolution” and end up launching their own non-violent protest. Not about Iraq. That would have been too obvious. I chose local housing issue, really going on in the city.
Unfortunately, exposing local political corruption was the last thing Mauro D wanted for the station. To get the 1000, I had to sign a contract that the modern part of the script would be cut. So I got the money! Paid to write! But paid to keep a lid on it, too! And then my boyfriend at the time and I decided to take the station’s expensive equipment and drive to DC on my 27th birthday to film a massive Iraq protest and broadcast it. I did not know you can be fired from a volunteer position at a public access station. But that was the end of that. Let me end with this. You get older and you see the shades of grey in everything. But I will never let go of my 26- year- old dream of humanity doing away with violence. There are other ways to resolve conflict. Let’s do this America!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My mission is to tell stories that shake people out of their patterns and comfort zones just enough to cause some growth, and then comfort them, support them, make them laugh at themselves, and connect about the human experience. To quote one of my current clients, “We are all different. We are all the same.” I believe a good story busts open the facade revealing the guts of the situation and then provides an antidote that invokes catharsis, new solutions, perspective shifts, and promotes hope.
I moved into screenwriting after being a playwright for 6 years and never looked back. I still love a good play. Right now I’m a big Austin Squire fan. However, everyone who saw my plays seemed to think they would all work better as films. When I was 26 a play I wrote caught the eye of a film director so I turned it into a screenplay and that’s where the real magic began.
Graduate from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts for Dramatic Writing.
Looking back on it now, knowing who she is now, the highlight of college was co-writing and producing a feminist absurdist murder mystery with two classmates, one being Taffy Akner (Fleishman is in Trouble). Sidebar, I always thought she was the best writer in our program, which is saying a lot. If you aren’t reading her books, run don’t walk to a book store and start reading her.) I stage-managed shows in the local black boxes in return for the theatres producing my short plays. Off off Broadway, folks were insular. Well, everyone is. Perhaps it was to my detriment, but my life felt like it fell into place the day I was at Soho Repertory Theatre in a room jam-packed with scripts (back when we still wasted paper), and the director of the play I was stage managing said, “Someone dropped out of the 10-minute play festival. Do you have a script?” Sidebar, she wasn’t famous yet, but Soho Rep was a hip trendy theatre and she was doing Williamstown, Gwenneth Paltrow was in the audience when my play, “John Calls” came to life in front of my eyes. I didn’t know who she was at all at the time, which is crazy, but my parents had just seen her in “The Seagull
” with her mother in Williamstown and they both freaked out. I realized that my way into seeing my projects come to the stage, and then the eventually the screen was getting in with people making a great project, helping them, giving it my best, bonding, and letting life take it’s course. If the relationship sticks, maybe it’s months, maybe it’s years but eventually, someone tends to say, Oh you’re a writer? Do you have a script?
After college I assumed that I would do the same thing, stage manage shows and getting scripts made. Unfortunately, this plan did not pay the bills. I got stuck between working and doing some volunteer arts administrative job or working and writing scripts. It was hard to swing all three. I think that’s one of the reasons it took longer than I thought to get to where I am. Along the way, I have had more adventures and crazy experiences, highs, and lows, than would ever have been possible if my first movie launched my career into Easy Street. I have worked with clients with stories that have brought me all over the country, and even to France. I’m told I have a unique ability to see right into someone’s brain and soul and understand their side of things. I think that comes from the fact that I have lived so many lives, made so many mistakes and I mean some major doozies, and learned and grown, and met so many people along the way and am still here and writing scripts and making movies in this crazy wonderful film indsutry.
It never paid the bills, but from a really young age, I was making. money as a writer. My first client was an 87-year-old former Romanian scientist brought to America after World War II. I wrote his screenplay biography for 5,000. The same year I made another 1000 to adapt a book about the American Revolution.,
My first movie, “Still Green” came out in 2009 in Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and Netflix DVD (If you don’t know about these platforms google it). Ironically, Netflix Streaming (still kind of new back then) rejected it because of the brief toplessness and ass nudity. And they couldn’t; have teenagers drinking or smoking pot with no consequence. Boy have times changed. In 2021, the Fort Meyers Film Festival programmed “Still Green” in a retrospective where I resold it to Entertainment Oxygen who have put it online. It’s a great platform mainly for film festival darlings lost during the DVD market collapse. It’s also a networking site where audiences and artists interact and collaborate. People say, “just put it up on YoTube” and make it easy, but I feel that devalues the quality, soat the moment, it is exclusively on their platform. It’s a free platform you just have to make a profile and the movie is 2.99. But you get enough free tokens when you join to watch anything you want for free.
My second movie came out in 2019. ” 1/2 New Yea”r is on most VOD platforms through Comedy Dynamics.” 1/2 New Year” is a raunchy heartfelt comedy about a group of friends in Los Angeles who reevaluate their relationships after a traumatic incident during their annual 1/2 New Year Party. It’s set today but was inspired by a lot of John Hughes and is the perfect date movie or party movie for anyone in their 20’s and 30’s either in their body or in their spirit.
I have 3 of my own projects and one that I wrote for a client in development/pre-production right now. I have as much passion for my clients’ stories as my own. So far, I have had about 50 writing clients in my life. All have come at me with fascinating stories or books that attract my interest from all walks of life A recent highlight, I was hired to write the script for Anna Honorata’s short film, “Tag, You’re It,” which was done in partnership with Love Never Fails, a non-profit that rehabilitates victims of sex trafficking and domestic abuse. As the movie toured the world, women opened up about their experiences with all types of abuse and found a community! I am adapting an inspirational sci-fi fantasy fiction novel for a client that has restored my faith in science and magic. “Look Inside” was written long before self-care was a thing. The Montessouri principal who hired me for that script helped me heal personally from trauma and brought me up to Washington, and then Vancouver. Experiences I have had in the process of working with clients have shaped my life. Some have become close friends, almost like family to me. Clients say that they like the way I get them to open up and feel amazing as much as the writing, I guess that’s my brand. Copywriting is a big part of my life. My recent highlights was 2021-2022 as the copywriter for USSEA (United States Skateboard Education Association) who build skate parks and promote safe skateboarding around the world. I am still learning my boundaries but tend to throw in a lot of extra marketing perks, as I want to get the thing made, published, whatever the goal is as well.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best way to support today’s artists – buy and promote their work. It’s easy to get sucked into a marathon rerun of your favorite binge-worthy show, or grab another John Grisham novel (and that’s fine, we need these genius people too) or remake a Shakespeare play (pro-tip he doesn’t need the money) or Star Wars 1000000000 but what about all the films playing at the local film festival. What about the movies your friends have on YouTube or Prime? What about the Facebook friend who always promotes his graphic business? I am guilty of this too. I just became friends with one of the writers on “Animal Kingdom.” And I still haven’t watched it. Same with my friend’s “Not Another Christmas Movie.” I mean, we only have so much free time and the big hits are hits for a reason. They’re awesome. But others are just as awesome, or more awesome, they just have no marketing. I think it’s easy to assume that low-budget movies, movies without stars in them, movies you’ve never heard of, and film festival movies as sub par to the mainstream. But we are what movies and media we consume. The best way to spread new ideas and solutions is to watch different content. In a perfect world, every movie would have to be rented or bought, individually. Why not. It seems absurd to expect artists to keep making great art if they can’t pay their bills. It’s like learning to eat vegan. One step at a time. Pick a new platform, Set aside 3 dollars a week for an IndieGoGo project or local book fair or artisan booth and contribute. I also think to an outsider, this business looks really easy and fun. It is fun and it’s terrible. It’s amazing and it will eat you up alive. But I feel there is a strange resentment from the GP about having to pay for movies and shows like the artists don’t deserve the money. I don’t get it but it really breaks my heart. The best part about supporting and enjoying art and culture, you get to have fun and immersively experience it. The more dirverse music, theatre, writing, art, literature, dance, and digital media we consume the better for everyone!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When I was 26, something traumatic happened to me. I have pure-O Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This means that thoughts that have no business being in my brain pop up in there. There is something broken in the part of the brain that filters out which thoughts are relevant so these ideas come in. And they feel true. They seem true. The ability to stop and go, “Wait, this thought has this surreal emotional impact on me, but it’s irrational” is hard to learn. The response instead is, “This terrible thing will/is happening, it will never get solved, and it will ruin my life.” I’ve dealt with it all my life, and sometimes wonder why the universe pushed me into a career where one is always battling the perfection of their own standards. In other words, writers are insecure about their writing and talent feels like a slippery ball to wrangle. Muse summoning is already a challenge.
I was working on a script and I couldn’t think of a word. Then suddenly I couldn’t think of any words. Then I started googling every word trying to “relearn” words, convincing myself I forgot them. I did not know I had OCD yet. It just felt like reality. I started getting so anxious when I would try not just to write, but to talk, that something was wrong with my brain and I was going to lose my intelligence. It would take me a day to write a sentence. It didn’t feel right, I had to check and recheck words. If someone, anyone used a word I didn’t know it was a crisis. The issue was it was too late to stop writing. Even though at the time, it was like torture, I was getting paid to write news stories and a script. For the next 15 years, I would be unlearning this automatic response.
A few years ago, I was in a theatre watching one of my movies and the person next to me was laughing so hard. Later she was crying. I thought to myself, I am contributing to the artistic cannon and making people think and feel., I am a real writer, and probably a good one and that so far, I’ve been talking and writing for the past 15 years convinced it was all going to go away and I was done with it. I just kind started interacting with this thought. Now when I write, of course I still have the battles, is it good, is it as good as the last one, but I never worry that my thoughts or words were going to bleed out of my brain anymore.
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Contact Info:
- Instagram: @georgiawriteon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgia.menides
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-menides/
- Twitter: @stillgreenwrite
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1493598/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Image Credits
Rebecca Vinacour
Anna Honorata
Linsdey Hurst
Marc Gordon