In this session of Writers Group Therapy, we are talking with Brett Wagner, the writer and director of The Big Bend, a thriller borne out of an experience he had with his own family in the deep desert of west Texas. His award winning shorts “Chief” and “Care” appeared at Sundance, the LA International Short Film Festival and received a BAFTA award of excellence, and qualified for the Academy Awards.
SHOW NOTES:
- Trailer: https://youtu.be/fyKelEO-v_0
- The Big Bend on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0994587/
- Brett Wagner on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10536088/
- Review: https://www.showbizjunkies.com/movies/the-big-bend-review/#google_vignette
- Brett on Instagram: @Wagnerific
- The Big Bend on Instagram: @theBigBendmovie
- The Big Bend Facebook page
About Brett’s Wagner
Brett Wagner is a director and screenwriter. His forthcoming feature film, The Big Bend, in post-production, stars Jason Butler Harner and was filmed over a month in the remote west-Texas desert town of Terlingua. IndieWIRE declared his earlier film, Chief, a “must-see short film of the Sundance Film Festival.” Chief won Best Dramatic Film at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, a BAFTA Award of Excellence, audience awards at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Maui Film Festival, and many other accolades.
His 2014 film, Care, starring Rachel Brosnahan, also won Best Dramatic Film at LA Shorts, as well as Best Short Film at the Kansas City Film Festival and the Williamsburg Film Festival, and an audience award at the Napa Valley Film Festival. Both shorts received Academy Award qualification as a result of their festival wins.
Brett’s first feature film, Five Years (released internationally as The Hidden) won the Victoria Independent Film Festival, received Best Screenplay at Avignon, and screened at dozens of festivals.
Recent screenplays include “Daisy, Arkansas”, recipient of the NYU “Purple List” honor; an adaptation of the bestselling memoir, “The Devil’s Teeth”, for executive producer Terrence Malick; and an adaptation of Steven Callahan’s survival epic, “Adrift”, for director/producer Tim Matheson. “The Devil’s Teeth” won a Sloan Foundation development grant through the Tribeca Film Festival.
Brett also directs commercials and branded content, and is the Associate Chair of Film and Television at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Brett grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
