About
In 2009, Inspired Productions was created to promote and advance women writers, producers and directors in film and theater as well as focus on female characters of substance in original works.
Shortly after, the first project, a short film called Play Dead was submitted to The St. Louis Filmmaker's Showcase. Written and directed by Vanessa Roman and produced by Gayle Gallagher, the short went on to win two awards, Best Horror Short and Best Juvenile Actress for Marissa Roman.
Play Dead went on to play in festivals around the country and in Toronto to rave reviews.
In 2010, the second short film The Inheritance, a collaboration between Vanessa Roman and Sandra Olmsted was a finalist in the Dreamscape competition at the Pulitzer Foundation and went on to win Best Use of Color at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and Best Experimental film at the Toronto Female Eye Festival.
Shortly after, in 2011, Inspired Productions produced the play The Violinist written by Susan Berardi and directed by Vanessa Roman. This full length play was well received at the History Museum and the proceeds went to benefit the group Action for Autism. The play raised thousands of dollars for charity and brought awareness and education to the community regarding the challenges of living with autism.
The following year, in 2012, Susan Berardi and Vanessa Roman teamed up again to write the original comedy play Tony and Liz tie the Knot, presented at the Gaslight Theater with a live, interactive wedding reception immediately following right next door. The play was a smash hit, selling out almost every performance and garnering favorable reviews. Again, the proceeds benefitted Action for Autism, raising money for therapies for children with autism. In January of 2013, an encore sold out performance in Troy, Missouri was produced to benefit their local autism charity.
The short drama The Bathroom Door, a moody family drama set in the 1970's is in post production at the present time. Focusing on a family where domestic violence and abuse is swept under the rug on a daily basis, the oldest child reaches a breaking point, making a decision that will forever change every one of them.
In 2015, Inspired Productions begins principal production on a screwball romantic comedy, The Importance of Doubting Tom. The feature length screenplay is a clever update of Oscar Wilde's witty comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest but told from the female character's point of view.
“Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I’d say that film is the sculpting of time.”
– Andrei Tarkovsky