Historical Story - Innovation

Link to screenplay

Artist's Statement

Writing a script surrounding a historical event can be a tricky process. What we take for granted today - commonplace gadgets, vocal nuances, and such - could be completely out of place or even nonexistent in the world of a couple decades ago. However historically incorrect that may be, in some instances old and new have been interwoven successfully, like Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet (1996).

For our screenplay surrounding the history and possible controversy over the invention of the ballpoint pen, we were happy to keep the setting in the postwar 1940's. The time period isn't only correct for the emergence of the ballpoint pen, but it provides an interesting era of Caponesque mobsters and hitmen. Since the 1940's is saturated with the hatred and despair of war, it can be argued that the method of killing for sometimes little to no purpose had become more brutal. Think of Bonnie and Clyde's notorious run as criminals and killers, and multiply that by at least 10, because their number was up in the mid-30's, and by then they had done a lot of damage. 

The reason we felt justified in collaborating on a violent script surrounding the invention of the ballpoint pen was because we wanted to show how senseless conflict can be and how ridiculous our reasons can be for starting a conflict that will result in the loss of innocent lives. Just like Laszlo - our inventor - says, "But it is just a pen, it is no master weapon!"

The graphic novel, After the Deluge, addresses a question similar to this when the refugees of the flooded "bowl" were treated with neglect and even hostility from military groups who should have been passing out water and food instead of training their gun barrels at them - the cycle repeats itself.

Over all, we hope that our script doesn't gratify and entertain more than it makes a valuable point, because this is an important topic to address: What justifies violence? And who really has the right to decide when or if it's okay to disregard and even threaten innocent people's lives? 

By Daniel Tu and Gina Thompson