Summary: Martin's mother passes away after a two year battle with cancer and his long lost best friend Abe finally shows up after seven years. They have to catch up and fill each other in on what they have missed out on -only to realise that they might have missed out on being more than best friends.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Hannah Ehman
Martin: Steve Rizzo
Abraham: Shawn Devlin

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your screenplay about?

The logline for my script is about as basic of a summary as I could muster: "A reunion at a funeral between two friends who haven't seen each other in seven years leads to conversations regarding loss, relationships, career, and family trauma." Beyond that barebones description, within the span of the day these two guys will spend together, they realize how deeply impactful the other one was on their lives when they were younger.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

The screenplay straddles back and forth between drama and comedy throughout.

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

Man, that's a tough question, and I'm not sure I can come up with an answer that isn't self-congratulatory on some level - haha! But, I think one of the things I like so much about these characters is that, throughout the script, they have the chance to work through issues that I would hope are universal for so many people, regardless of how one identifies.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Thoughtful conversation

5. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

"Lost & Found" is a sequel to another script that I wrote, also last year, called "Missing Persons" and, like the "Before" trilogy, or films like "The Decline of the American Empire" (1986) and its sequel "The Barbarian Invasions" (2003), we catch up with characters several years later and find out what's been happening to them in the interim.

In one form or another, I've sat with these two characters - Martin and Abraham - for the better portion of two and a half decades in my head. I've long thought that the original script for "Missing Persons" needed to be about one thing but I would only write half a page here, half a page there and never really go anywhere with it.

Through a series of family events that have taken place over the last few years, I finally realized why that initial script was taking so long and, it was because it also needed to be about what happened with those events and how they were inextricably linked to what I had originally planned for "Missing Persons". Once that all played itself out, these scripts that I had been toying with for the better portion of 25 years, all came flooding out in a total of about a month to a month and a half per script. And, the great part is that my original themes and ideas for "Missing Persons" are alive and well in the script as it stands.

While I guess you could say that I technically finished "Missing Persons" first, "Lost & Found" was also written in tandem and they do truly feel like companion pieces. Before anything else was ever written for the script, I knew what I wanted the ending of "Missing Persons" to be. Everything was essentially backwards planned from there. And, as I started writing "Missing Persons", I realized that I wasn't done with these guys and I had to see where they might land next, hence, the birth of "Lost & Found".

6. How many stories have you written?

Just these two.

I have another script I'm in the middle of writing now and hoping to have that one finished (at least in first draft form) within the next month or so. I also have two other scripts that I have finished the final outlines for, but am waiting to start writing until I finish the one I'm in the middle of now. I also have a list of about 7 or 8 other script ideas that I keep in my phone as a general one-sentence plot summary comes to mind that I don't want to forget for later, including an idea for a potential third go round with Martin and Abraham.

7. What motivated you to write this screenplay?

That's a loaded question, and I've kind of already touched upon their connections to my family and the profoundly dysfunctional house I grew up in.

But, as I think about these two characters and what they mean to me, I realize that the scripts are essentially love letters to my three best friends from high school who saved my life, even if they didn't know they were doing it at the time.

8. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

Some of the obstacles I've already talked about (i.e. in terms of the time it took to finally realize what I knew they needed to be about). But, I think I'd say one of the biggest challenges I had was just getting used to the formatting. I'd never written a script before these two. I'd never taken any classes on screenwriting. And, I'd read very few of them on paper even though my life has essentially revolved around film for as long as I can remember.

Another huge obstacle was getting that voice in the back of my head - the one that wanted me to doubt myself as a writer or as a person who might have a story to tell - to shut up.

There was another obstacle that I think is worth mentioning, but I'll speak to it in a couple of questions from now.

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Film, in general. I'm nuts about the medium. I've kept a record of every movie I've ever seen since I was a kid. I've studied it passionately since I was about 14 years old and my first Bachelor's is in film studies.

On top of that, my husband, our daughter, and our two dogs and two cats are pretty much the focal points of my life outside of work and film.

10. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

What influenced me to enter the festival was the idea that I could submit two screenplays for the price of one. I'd entered "Missing Persons" into a few other competitions before this one, but I had never entered "Lost & Found" because I'd always seen it as a sequel and didn't know whether or not it could stand on its own without the first one.

When "Lost & Found" won the competition, I was blown away, because I never expected it to win in the first place (which was a lovely surprise), and I've never really been able to separate the two stories in my head even though they are distinctly different on paper.

Strangely enough, I received feedback on "Lost & Found" prior to receiving feedback about "Missing Persons" and, what that helped me to do was to go back and to make minor tweaks and edits to the story so that it truly could stand alone as its own piece should somehow something come of it and not from the first one.

I guess harkening back to the question about obstacles, one of the challenges I faced once I received feedback about "Lost & Found" was how to go back and do just enough reworking so that it could stand alone on its own. I wanted to ensure that I wasn't leaving anything out in terms of information that the first film would have filled in if the second was to play by itself while simultaneously making sure that I didn't repeat the same information that I'd shared about the characters in the first one, should both films ever eventually see the light of day.

And, the last reason I entered the competition was, for me, the most important one: I'd not entered either of the scripts into a competition focused solely around LGBTQ+ stories yet. While I'd wanted the characters' feelings, and emotions, and longings, and dreams, and anxieties, and fears to be (hopefully) universal on some level, I think there's something to be said about entering the scripts into a competition that is focused on raising the voices of LGBTQ+ writers and stories that feature LGBTQ+ characters.

11. What movie have you watched the most times in your life?

I've been glued to movies ever since I can remember. In another lifetime (my 20's) I worked in a video store and I would put the same movies on over and over again. These were movies I used to watch on repeat when I was a kid, as well, so, I'd probably say: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (which, additionally, was the first movie my parents ever took me to the theater to see), Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Back to the Beach (1987), Beetlejuice (1988), and/or Troop Beverly Hills (1989).