Pamela Romanowsky is a Brooklyn-based writer and director. She is an alumnus of The Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting, Directing, and Composition & Sound labs and the Creative Producing Summit, and a current fellow with Sundance’s Female Filmmaker Initiative. Her short films include “Tar,” starring James Franco and Mila Kunis, which constitutes a portion of the multi-director omnibus feature “The Color of Time,” released by Starz in 2014. “The Adderall Diaries” is her debut feature film. The drama premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. (Press materials)
“The Adderall Diaries” opens in theaters April 15.
W&H: Please give us your description of the film playing.
PR: “The Adderall Diaries” is about Stephen Elliott, a memoir writer accused of fabricating his past by his estranged father. In an effort to avoid his problems, Stephen immerses himself in a high-profile murder case while his relationships with his girlfriend, best friend and editor fall apart around him.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
PR: I’m fascinated by memory — how it is foundational to our identities, but extremely malleable. You have these two people with very different versions of their shared history, who are working through the why of it.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
PR: For me, it’s re-writing and editing. Both are places where it gets hard to see things objectively, to abandon something beautiful or hard-won that isn’t working and to find new ways of expressing the intention.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
PR: How each of us organizes our own memories and narratives — where each of us has edited and exaggerated to present a certain character, and whether that’s a character we still want to be.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
PR: Same advice for any gender: be relentless and be kind, and appreciate the hell out of the people who help you.
W&H: What’s the biggest misconception about you and your work?
PR: Hmm, I’m not sure I know that answer yet. I don’t have any Adderall on me, though.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
PR: Producer Vince [Jolivette] and I were introduced to our financing producers Windowseat by Alexis Garcia of WME Global, who I met at the Sundance producing summit. I’m very grateful to him and to Windowseat for believing in and supporting the film.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
PR: Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” for its immersive and fascinating world and for the incredible surprise ending.
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