When I first sat down to write the script for what would become this film, I wanted to try something I had never attempted before, so I chose to make a fairy-tale. Like every narrative, fairy-tales consist of real life and fiction fused together. They must be mixed in a way that is original and interesting, in order to create something that will hopefully capture an audience, draw them into that manufactured world, and make them believe it to be real (even if only for a handful of minutes). What I love about fairy-tales is their ability to manifest truth amidst fantastical fiction and childlike imagination.
I've always treasured stories about children, maybe because of their unique perspective of the world, or just the fact that they are so darn cute, and I felt drawn to this tale of boy and ghost. At its surface, it is a story of friendship tied up in the trappings of a fantasy drama. But deeper, at the core of the film, there is something much more important than this simple story hitting the screen; shadows of real life stories of forgotten children.
Around the world, children walk through the day, the night, invisible and forgotten to those around them: they are malnourished, homeless, orphaned, uneducated, or worst of all, alone and unloved: they are the ghosts of the natural world.
So here I stand as a writer and director, trying to make the invisible visible through a fairy-tale. My hopes are that you will enjoy the film, as a fairy-tale, as a story, and more then just enjoying, my hope is for you to think deeply about these ghosts, as I have, so we can try to open our eyes a little bit more, and together, act, and do something about it. I hope you all enjoy "Paper Turtle" and I would love to hear your feedback.
writer/director,
Jonathan Stutzman
