We recently connected with Maryna Bogdan and have shared our conversation below.

Maryna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most meaningful project so far is my short film “Thank U” that will come out later this year. I wrote it right after Russia invaded my home country, Ukraine, in 2022. Practically everyone I knew back home was in grave danger and life in Los Angeles was as normal as it can be, so I was inspired to make a film juxtaposing two different perspectives on this war, and wars in general.
The protagonist is a Ukrainian immigrant, a young woman, who is trying to coordinate her family’s evacuation remotely. She’s doing it during a business lunch with her colleagues, three American women, who eventually strike a conversation about the war. The talk turns painfully honest for all, and our heroine finds herself trapped in between two drastically different realities.
It was challenging to shoot and edit, but it is an important subject and the story that needs to be told. I am excited to release it!

Maryna, 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?

I am a director and screenwriter, I work on narrative films, music videos and commercial content. I am drawn to stories for women and about women, told from an authentic, female point of view. We still don’t have enough of those.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Society needs to stop discouraging creatives from going into creative fields. As a teenager I remember telling people I wanted to be a screenwriter and hearing “You will never find a job!”, “Nobody needs writers!”. So I based some of my decisions on other people’s opinions and looking back I’m like: “If I didn’t listen to so and so I could’ve started making things and money off of them earlier”. Of course, film industry is brutal and very competitive, but if you are highly motivated and driven, you can make it happen. It’s not impossible.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Scriptnotes podcast for screenwriters, Sundance Collab courses for producers, ShotDeck and Frame Set for directors to find visual references. Of course, Pinterest – all my projects start with a board. And YouTube! You can find literally anything on YouTube.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryna_bogdan/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/marynabogdan
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@marynabogdan

Image Credits