Meet Lauren Dunitz

We recently connected with Lauren Dunitz and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Well, for me, these developments are ongoing. Ha. Confidence and self-esteem are such fickle things; sometimes they’re earned and sometimes it really is a fake-it-’till-you-make-it situation. Identifying as a “creative” in any way is so vulnerable and the pursuit of art inherently involves so much failure, I just try to be as clear as possible about my goal and then keep my head down as I move toward it. If I get even close to what I was hoping to achieve, I find my confidence goes up just a little bit. On top of that, the support of a community that truly wants to see me succeed instead of fail does a lot for my self-esteem. We all deserve that kind of nurturing and I’m lucky to have so many genuinely supportive people in my life right now.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

As a writer, I spend a lot of time alone in my house indulging in my bizarro and psychotic fantasies. Then I spend even more time forcing them into a cogent and palatable story structure. While that can be rewarding, what’s most fun is going to set and seeing such brilliant creative and technical geniuses build out a world that once existed only in my mind. Working as a director with the wildly talented cast and crew that I have been blessed to work alongside has been the most rewarding time of my life. My latest film, STAN, is currently in post-production and I am just eating up every moment of it.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

It’s simple, but you really can’t be afraid of failure. To me, that means a couple things. It means you have to keep putting yourself out there even when you don’t want to, even when it feels scary and vulnerable. You have to tell people in your world, over and over again, what you’re pursuing – you never know who can help or how! And, finally, you have to be a forever student of your craft. I have been writing screenplays for almost 10 years, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I still seek out teachers and mentors to guide me, even if I think my project is in great shape. That doesn’t mean you have to take every note thrown at you, but being a perpetual student means your work will always get better and better. And having the quality of your work be the best it can be is the first step toward an exciting outcome.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am always looking for new creative and collaborative partners! If you have a campy, queer, horror-comedy you need help executing whether it’s an idea still in development that needs the aid of a writer or a project otherwise ready to roll that needs its perfect director, I’m your gal. I can be found via direct message on Instagram @laurendunitz or via my website, www.laurendunitz.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurendunitz.com
• Instagram: @LaurenDunitz

Image Credits

Robert Carroll