FEMALE Festival Best Scene Reading: MANIPULATIVE WAYS, by Cheryl Smith

Susan Passaretti embodies the stereotypical millennial – entitled and a little delusional. By day, she works as a waitress in a greasy spoon diner, and by night, she is a stripper. Fate introduces an extraordinary turn of events when she meets Jonathan, a habitual lottery player who finally believes he has struck gold. Susan concocts a seductive scheme against Jonathan, a man past his prime who is seeking a good time, to separate him from his winning lottery ticket. However, the newfound riches do little to fulfill her deepest desire: the elusive approval of her cold and harshly critical father, a validation she has yearned for since childhood.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Val Cole
Susan: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Jonathan: Sean Ballantyne

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By femalefilmfestival

The irony of this festival is that its goal is to not be around in 5 years time. To eventually not be relevant because there is zero need to have a festival geared for female talent and female stories because the stories presented in Hollywood and around the world are a balanced showcase of the human experience from both sexes. Our goal is to achieve a lot of success and then fold into oblivion simply because there is no need for this festival. This festival was created by the FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival as a simple reaction to a strong need to showcase female talent from around the world in a more profound way. When putting together the weekly festival, the administration noticed a lack of a female presence in the stories being shown at the festival. A classic example and analogy to the frustration is how the festival noticed that even the smaller roles in a screenplay were written for a man to play. There was zero reason for this in many stories. How a police officer, or a political campaign manager, for example with 3-4 lines in a screenplay was a "HE" character. Why? And these are the screenplays written by the winners! The talented one who have obtained agents and have began/beginning their careers as a writer.

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