Paul Award recipients discuss their winning screenplays

Published: Sunday December 25, 2011

Jeff Kalousdian (L) and Kraig Kuzirian.

The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) awarded its biennial $10,000 Paul Screenwriting Award to two screenwriters, in its first-ever competition tie: Jeff Kalousdian, for his script The Florist; and Kraig Kuzirian, for his script Bluebeard.

Recently, ADAA interviewed the winners, to learn more about the background of these talented Armenian writers, who are making headway in the entertainment industry.

- How did you begin as a writer?

JEFF: I really just started writing. I began by writing The Florist, the script I submitted for the Paul Award. It's my first creative work... at least the first one I have shared with the public.

KRAIG: I began as a writer, a young child, enjoying telling stories and lies. My voice modulated into poems in my early adolescent and high school years. Short stories, plays, and film scripts started emanating throughout college. I've turned back to telling lies and writing film scripts as there is no money in poems, and there is too much cerebral competition in theater.

- Briefly describe the winning script.

JEFF: With the Nagorno Karabagh war as the backdrop, The Florist is a contemporary drama about an old man that struggles to come to terms with the disappearance of his son who went missing years earlier near the border with Azerbaijan. The story takes place nearly 10 years after the 1994 ceasefire so there are no battles scenes or violence, but, just as in real life, the unresolved war looms in the background. The story is really about our need to believe in something, even our own lies, because not believing in something makes it so much harder to get through life. All the central characters, a French reporter, Spanish Red Cross worker, Armenian military commander and the old man, are all clinging to something that deep down they know is untrue. As the story progresses, all the characters are forced to face their "truths" and we slowly discover what happened to the old man's missing son.

KRAIG: Bluebeard, my winning script is an adaptation of a warm and hilarious biographical novel by the brilliant and inimitable Kurt Vonnegut. Bluebeard is a light epic, the story of a fictitious Armenian modern art broker told against an 80 year back-drop of world history. The adaptation was one of the easiest writing jobs I've ever had. Mr. Vonnegut did all of the heavy lifting. Adapting a writer that profound and straight shooting, you simply stand out of the way. My colossal sorrow is not ever having been able to meet him.

- What are you working on now?

JEFF: I have a couple writing projects in the works. One that I am very excited about deals with love, racisms and borders in our "global" world. It's not an Armenian story, but I think it's one Armenians will relate to very well. I am also producing a couple of films that should be out in 2013.

KRAIG: I'm now working a science fiction screenplay.

-Tell us more about your background.

JEFF: I'm originally from Lake Tahoe, California and grew up in the San Francisco Bay. These days I spend about half the year in Armenia and half in the US or Europe. I began producing films in 2008. Prior to this I worked for 15 years in the humanitarian field, managing economic development and human rights projects in Armenia, Georgia, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. My first step into the world of cinema was in 2006 where I helped pioneer a program in the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan called "Directors Across Borders." The program helps build cross-border cultural and political relations in the region through collaborative film projects.

KRAIG: I was born to first generation Armenian parents and educated in California-- kindergarten to UCLA.

- What advice would you give other Armenians just starting out to write?

JEFF: I was hoping someone would advise me. I am just a rookie myself. Maybe I should answer the question not as writer but as an Armenian in love with story and cinema. We have so many stories to tell, such a rich past and present. I want the world to hear these stories. But we don't have enough people telling them, not at least in ways that non-Armenians would find interesting. We are competing against thousands of non-Armenian film scripts written every year... thousands of really good scripts. My advice to writers just starting out is to be adventurous, avoid our clichés and think about non-Armenians while you write... how to grab them and how to make our stories relevant to them.

KRAIG: The twofold advice I would give an Armenian just picking up a pen is what I would tell anybody: back slowly out of the room, and run far away. This is a stupid, stupid business with only a few more degrees of self-actualizing control then roulette. That said, telling a writer not to write is like telling a runner not to run. So the default advice: experience, things with as original a perception as you can muster; lift yourself above while delving in further. Your pen will respond.

- How do you think this award will help you?

JEFF: First and foremost, it's a huge boost of confidence. It inspires me to keep writing. I hope to produce The Florist in the near future, maybe even direct it. While writing a script is very time consuming and difficult, it is the first of many steps in getting a story to the screen. The cash prize will help me start down the long road of putting together the right people and resources to make the film.

KRAIG: The Paul Award helped, of course, financially; but also spiritually. Every writer, except a very few highly praised, face moments, or decades, when they feel there is nothing worthwhile coming out. The Paul Award, originating from my "tribe," is a small but mighty punch of love and acknowledgement and has given me courage to push on.