Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
The things that often inspire me to sit down and start typing are a little bit… off. There is nothing I love writing about more than things that are a little weird, a little uncomfortable and yet all too ubiquitous to ignore. In fact, it’s not unusual for me to grab my laptop and start writing a sweet or touching film, only to abandon it after 30 minutes to pursue some strangely funny thought that entered my mind like a lost gnat.
This is exactly why I found myself compelled to write a film about dick pictures last year. I know I’ve told you about my adventure in Milan, Italy where I spent 10 days last year writing a film in the Wes Anderson Cafe. But what I didn’t tell you is that the film was about a recently single woman facing the realities of a dating world where intimacy is traded for smartphone photos of our private parts. In fact, it’s called Private Parts.
The funny thing about writing a movie about dick pictures is that while I’m really proud of the film, it’s kind of a hilarious phenomena to explain to my mentors and family why it’s doing so well in competition. In fact, this strangely saccharine script about dick pictures was not only the runner up at IndieFest, it was a finalist at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Just like my characters, I’m having to face that really bizarre experience of talking about my very intimate inspiration. Inevitably, if you tell people that your movie is about guys sending women pictures of their penises, people ask if you have received one. The answer is yes. And I think more of us have than we would ever admit. I’m not pretending to be a nun-wannabe over here. But I can tell you this: the number of times it was exciting is equal in measure to the number of times it was totally unexpected and a little bit gross.
And to be fair, it’s not as if I haven’t sent a scandalous photo of my own ever. I too have traded in intimacy with pixels.
To this day, I don’t know how I feel about sending sexy pictures back and forth with boyfriends or random partners. If I’m being totally honest, I always get more of a thrill from the weird gifs of my boyfriend’s face contorting one way or another than anything else. But these photos, they reveal something about how we form our relationships now that have never been part of our romantic entanglements before. And if you don’t believe me, you just need to know that there are now lawyers out there that have cease and desist letters on file for divorcees and the broken hearted to prevent their own private images from being saved or shared.
Alas, it turns out that our most private moments reveal some of the most profound truths of our humanity.
I’m proud of the script and if you live in Seattle, I’d love for you to join us for a live reading at SIFF in December! For those that don’t know: “SIFF Catalyst First Draft live script table read series, now in its fourth year, features unproduced scripts that were finalists in the 2016 Catalyst Screenplay Competition.”
Private Parts will be read December 14th. You can RSVP here. And maybe when it’s done, we can trade a few stories about our own adventures in exchanging our private parts.
