Tamar Halpern recently adapted Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, based on the book by New York Times best selling young adult author Wendy Mass. Tamar directed the film, which releases March 2012 and stars Mira Sorvino and Joe Pantoliano, with music by Edie Brickell. Previous writer/director work includes her feature Shelf Life, which Variety called a “whip smart film that taps into a fresh source for American comedy.” Her script Blackwell is in development with Sobini films and her feature Your Name Here, called “hipster parenthood’ by The Gawker, just released on TheWatchbox.com. A two-time writing resident of Hedgebrook, Tamar’s short fiction is published in Joyland Magazine and went on to win the Best of the Net 2010.

Writing awards include Paramount Screenwriting Fellowship, Jack Oakie Comedy Screenplay Award, IFP/NY Screenplay Finalist, FIND Directors Lab Fellow, Slamdance Screenplay Finalist, Cynosure Screenplay Finalist, Nicholl Screenplay Semi Finalist, Best Director Stonybrook Film Festival, Jury Award Best Film Dances With Films, Dreamago Plume et Pellicule Switzerland, Blacklist Best Unproduced Screenplays and 2010 Best of the Net for her short stories. Directing awards include Best Juried Short and Best Audience Short, Death Taxes and Apple Juice, Best Director, Memphis Bound and Gagged, Best Juried Feature, Shelf Life, Best Short, Death Taxes and Apple Juice, Top Ten Pilot pitch, John Wang’s Nebraska, FIND Directors Lab, Ezzy Fish.

My influences for Ezzy Fish link back to my childhood, an unorthodox upbringing by a visual artist mother and a theoretical physicist father. While my father would try to explain entropy in terms I could understand, I would wander through my mother's art studio collecting oil crayons stubs. Cowboys and country musicians wove their way through our lives, infusing the house with strains of fiddle music and late night poker games. A few times a year, I would road trip with my grandparents through the Southwest and Mexico, staying in low-budget motels and making friends on the rare occasion when my path crossed with a traveler my age.

In terms of visual design, I see Ezzy Fish being drained of color during scenes when Ezzy is steeped in the real world and then bursting with color during her more magical visions. Because the green and blue color palette is originally linked to the plot and the main character, I see the play between saturated colors and stark tones as a natural extension of many story motels that still exist in their original form, having been spared renovation or demolition.

I envision this story as a tone poem in the style of Badlands or Days of Heaven, filled with raw, minimalist performances with natural lighting whenever possible. Ezzy Fish explores the potent effects of poverty and imagination on a child. It also illustrates the freedom of childhood and the fears and vagaries of adulthood. We are invited to share Ezzy's vision of a universe which functions only in ways a child's imagination can conjure, as if we as children were responsible for the creation of the world.

-Tamar Halpern