By Nick Sansone
2nd Place, Prose, Create | Encounter 2022
Download Father's Day to read it in its original screenplay formatting:
(Warning: Sexual Content)
Artist Statement:
The initial idea for this short screenplay came from another feature screenplay I'm currently working on, where I created the character of Ashlynn as one of the three main protagonists. While exploring her backstory, and specifically her relationship with her estranged father who had wanted her aborted, I remembered something I've seen printed on signs and buttons, including those sold by Rehumanize International, which is that "Abortion is a Tool of the Patriarchy." From there, everything else came to me almost immediately. In this screenplay, which takes place primarily in Ashlynn's stream of consciousness as she drives to meet her estranged father for the first time, I seek to capture with no ambiguity or sugarcoating the role of toxic masculinity and patriarchy behind abortion, how women and their unborn children are forced to pay the price, and the trauma that post-abortive women are too often forced to struggle with in silence.