By the grace of a heavenly entity, sheer will-power or both, some people get to devote their lives to something they love doing. Lynn Lamousin attributes her success in this respect to luck, tenacity, and perseverance. In the months following the premiere of The Lady from Sockholm, which she wrote and financed, the sock-puppet noir film has been accepted into ten film festivals. Not only is Lynn talented, but her experience in the corporate world also gives her a professional edge that has enabled her to succeed as a businesswoman and an artist. I met up with her in late August to discuss her love for writing, the local film scene, and her future plans.
Originally from Louisiana, Lynn has lived in Atlanta, GA on and off for nearly two decades. She received her B.A. from Louisiana State University, where she studied journalism, film, and advertising. After a brief stint in providing sales support for Ameritech in Chicago, Lynn relocated to Northern California to manage the development of a company’s web site. She learned html and enjoyed it. After gaining enough experience, she moved back to Atlanta, and in 1997 started her own web design firm, KittyBoy Creations.
Lynn’s involvement in filmmaking is a result of a life-long passion for art and books. As she grew up, she realized that she could tell better stories than the ones she had read. When she became interested in screenwriting in 2000, Lynn joined the Atlanta Screenwriters Group. Craving something more formal and structured, she signed up for a screenwriting class offered at IMAGE Film and Video, a non-profit organization that runs the Atlanta Film Festival and Out on Film. Her teacher, Evan Lieberman, would later co-direct “The Lady from Sockholm.”
With this knowledge and these tools, Lynn began writing. Within two years “The Lady from Sockholm” received a 2002 Slamdance Screenplay Competition Award of Excellence and was a 2002 Cinestory Competition finalist. Then in 2004 she won the Southeastern Media Award for her romantic-comedy script “Make Me a Match,” which gave her not only bragging rights but also financial and film crew support for a cinematic project. Because “The Lady from Sockholm” didn’t require as big a budget as “Make Me a Match,” her first film endeavor ended up being about and starring sock puppets.
When I asked Lynn how she felt as the writer-producer knowing that “Sockholm” is completed, it’s out there, and more and more people have the opportunity to see it, she paused for barely a second and smiled.
“It’s really cool,” she replied. “I Google the film all the time and found a link to someone’s blog….but then I have to think about the next step, which is distribution.”
Making, finishing, and exhibiting a film are daunting tasks. As Lynn mentioned on the subject of Atlanta’s film scene, “Digital film is a blessing and a curse—a lot of stuff gets shot” but not necessarily edited. What is completed may not even get seen. If it hits the festival circuit, one may want to revel in that achievement, but one cannot stop there.
Elaborating on her observations and experiences, Lynn remarked that she isn’t sure Atlanta filmmaking has changed that much, or at least not dramatically. Although, “people’s projects are getting better, there are tax incentives to film here, IMAGE has grown so much, and Out of Film has gotten huge, many films go straight to video.
“There’s a weird market here—for such a big city, we ought to have more.”
Lynn was in a tiny town in Iowa in early August for the Hardacre Film Festival’s screening of “Sockholm” and was amazed at the thriving film scene there.
Astutely, Lynn noted that television and big companies consume much of the local film talent. Compared with Atlanta’s other performing and fine arts scene, filmmaking is more business and less art.
Lynn Lamousin is an incredibly well-rounded and intelligent web designer, writer, and film producer. In the past five years, she has become an invaluable asset to the Atlanta filmmaking community. She wants to take her time in deciding on a new film project, and when she does, it will be worth the wait.
