We caught up with the brilliant and insightful M.r. Fitzgerald a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
M.r.Fitzgerald, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
All my projects are meaningful to me, from those I shared with the entire world to the ones that never saw the light of day. They’ve allowed me to exercise my creative muscles to explore what’s on my mind and put it on the page or the big screen. However, my latest short film, The Wolf, is the most meaningful project I’ve made thus far in my creative career. A few years ago at film school, I experienced severe trauma that sent me into a downward spiral of extreme anxiety, depression, and PTSD that I couldn’t escape. The events involved relentless stalking, harassment, gaslighting, and manipulation, which split me in half. The side once filled with creativity, rebelliousness, and hope for the future had been stolen from me. And then I still had to make a movie to graduate. This incentive pushed me to write in my journal about a woman named Collette who had escaped a cult but kept going back to smuggle others out since the abuse of her past still haunted her. Along the way, she reunites with a long-lost friend named Clint, whom she left behind at the cult, and the two explore their dreams and regrets over a promising future stolen from them. Fortunately, I received funding and found a cast and crew who provided immeasurable interest and support, allowing me to explore that idea until it blossomed into the finalized screenplay. The production came with Murphy’s Law issues, such as being snowed out on the first day, having electrical problems at our primary location, someone’s car being towed, and significant pressure from the school demanding a completely different film than what I had envisioned. And yet, everyone in the film production utilized their finest work and talents while also remembering that it was still my story at the end of the day, which I will always be grateful for. Once The Wolf had completed its post-production and started its film festival screening nationwide, I see now that the film reflects my grief over what had happened. It was my way of learning to stop running from the past, let go of anger and resentment, and remember that even though bad things happen, there’s still a chance for a better future. Trauma had changed me for the worse but creating The Wolf to address it finally changed me. I can peek down at the well that is The Wolf from time to time and then move on with my life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a filmmaker and artist from West Central Minnesota whose work deals with the lasting effects of trauma and setting things right in the aftermath. I find that journey fascinating in others, and it also allows me to see the catharsis of that same journey within myself. My work combines the scares of horror, the thrills of action-adventure, and the beautiful thoughtfulness of art cinema to make the audience think about their place in the universe and the scheme of humanity while also having a fun time. My short screenplay, Joe, was Second Rounder at the 2021 Austin Film Festival. My screenplay, Kindness Coins, was placed at HollyShorts, Screencraft, and The Red List SciFi Shorts. It was also considered for production by Hawk Films in London. My screenplay, The Boneyard, placed at HollyShorts, Atlanta Film Festival, The Script Lab, Film Pipeline, WeScreenplay, FilmQuest, and Shriekfest, won Best Horror Short Screenplay at Austin Revolution Film Festival, the Grand Prize at Barnstorm, and is available to purchase on Amazon as a 13Horror.com winner. I won 7 Best Screenplay awards for my script, People in A Box, which was placed at BlueCat, Renegade Film Festival, Golden Script Competition, and Atlanta Film Festival. My other films and screenplays have been featured in countless film festivals and screenplay competitions nationally and internationally.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The most important lesson I had to unlearn was to create films for other people’s enjoyment solely. It’s odd since I’m working in an industry based on getting financiers’ and audiences’ approval to make more content, but that shouldn’t be the sole reason one ventures to write a screenplay or produce a film. As a filmmaker, I utilize the craft to present the movie beautifully to the eye, but as an artist, I explore subject matter that aims to confront the heart and the mind. My successful projects have been where people told me, “This is weird. No one’s going to want to watch this,” which went on to win countless awards. And, vice versa, the projects where I made whatever someone else wanted from me turned out to be my worst work. Every single time. It’s an admirable intention to try and please others, but the road to hell is paved with them. No matter how much one tries, one can’t make everyone happy. And that’s perfectly okay. Just create the movie you want to watch and, wouldn’t you know it, many people will want to watch it too! This new “unlearned” lesson has freed me and blessed me with a more positive path in my creative journey.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
How freeing it is to write down ideas and emotions that have possessed the mind nonstop and finally release them into the world. Creating and filmmaking helped me overcome severe hardships that risked stripping away who I am; therefore, my goal is to use my filmmaking brand to help others from having the same thing happen to them—exposing dark elements of human nature, assisting people in coming to terms with a painful past, and giving them a sense of empathy and closure. For instance, I’m writing a television series called Ferals, where a rebellious teenager convinces her estranged father to help rescue her long-lost mother…. who happens to be infected by a virus that turns humans into bloodthirsty creatures. Within the first season, I explore a complex mother/father and daughter relationship, complicated group dynamics in the apocalypse, loyalty, betrayal, and what it means to rebuild a severed trust. Ferals also marks a return to my childhood passion for gory horror and high-octane action settings more than ever before. This progress was all made possible when I “deleted” a lousy past and left it far behind me, and yet, as I write, I still find that the pain still lives within and shows itself upon the pages. As time passes and as these pages grow, I feel that what happened is slipping away as I follow a family fighting to stay together in the aftermath of a worldwide apocalypse and their personal demons that tore them apart the night the world ended. I’ve still got a ways to go on this journey, but for the first time in a long time, I feel immensely excited about the future of Ferals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mrfitzgeraldart.weebly.com/?fbclid=IwAR1MYPgCHEeG4d_MXgVomaSUVkK1IkQEOxTVZ5CT6P7I759SIOt7JhaNKWI
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megafitx_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrfitzgeraldpresentssomething
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-r-fitzgerald-a12333178/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrFitzgerald11
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1vS_XaSEa-_MFE4mBsLx5w