Scenes Journal #1
Scenes Journal is a new biannual magazine which publishes screenplays and photography. Each issue will include an interview with a screenwriter, excerpts from original and classical scripts, and film essays. This first one, ‘Scenes of our past’, looks at how notions of the past have informed stories told on-screen.
The implications of the issue’s theme varies; at times the past takes the shape of relics, and at others it is spaces, as in Lara Tabet’s intense grief-centred photographs (above). Among the excerpts screenplay in Scenes, is a fragment from ‘Dark Valley’ by Andrew Rose and Alejandro Stepenberg, which considers America’s dark history, and what is means to have survived in times of adversity.
Elsewhere, history repeats itself in a contextual analysis by Keith Spillett of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece The Shining, illustrated with pages from Kubrick’s original script (above). And famed writer Gonzalo Maza speaks about his screenplay for Gloria, and how he became a screenwriter. Other notable pieces are poet Sabrina Mahfouz’s fictionalised experiences of sex workers, and Natasha Naayem’s look beyond nostalgia in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (below).
This is a strong debut, which does not only appeal to screenwriters, thanks to its rich, well-considered content. It looks good too – texts switch between magazine and script layout and regular photographic interruptions provide pace. And the front cover bears some carefully created scratches blemishes (below), presumably to give the issue a slightly aged effect to reflect the theme.
With grief, nostalgia and the past being considerable themes to tackle in an opening issue, it’ll be interesting to see what route the Scene Journal takes next.
Editor-in-chief and art director: Shalini Adnani
Editor: George Louis Bartlett
Publisher: Elisa Graham-Meza