Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Erin Saldin
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Creative Writing
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The complexities of female relationships, particularly mother-daughter relationships, are widely excluded from contemporary television culture. I suggest that this rarity leans more on the side of cultural omittance. Family estrangement is much more common in culture than we realize, yet, it is lent no cultural capital, no acknowledgement, and it leads to further estrangement. A person experiencing estrangement is already isolated from family, but also isolated from culture, community, and discussion surrounding this issue.
I have written a television pilot (“Motherless” is the title of the show), and will be conducting an online table reading of the episode. My focus of the pilot is to comedically present a lovable and broken main character, Mandy, who is failing at navigating herself into womanhood, and possibly motherhood due to the estrangement from her mother.
Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to shoot the opening scene, which was the initial presentation. Instead, I have conducted an online table reading and have chosen the most important scenes. These are compiled into a single video with a spoken introduction into the creative process.
Category
Visual and Performing Arts (including Creative Writing)
Motherless Episode 1 Actual .pdf (160 kB)
Motherless on TV: Navigating Womanhood While Estranged
The complexities of female relationships, particularly mother-daughter relationships, are widely excluded from contemporary television culture. I suggest that this rarity leans more on the side of cultural omittance. Family estrangement is much more common in culture than we realize, yet, it is lent no cultural capital, no acknowledgement, and it leads to further estrangement. A person experiencing estrangement is already isolated from family, but also isolated from culture, community, and discussion surrounding this issue.
I have written a television pilot (“Motherless” is the title of the show), and will be conducting an online table reading of the episode. My focus of the pilot is to comedically present a lovable and broken main character, Mandy, who is failing at navigating herself into womanhood, and possibly motherhood due to the estrangement from her mother.
Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to shoot the opening scene, which was the initial presentation. Instead, I have conducted an online table reading and have chosen the most important scenes. These are compiled into a single video with a spoken introduction into the creative process.