Amy Hoskins
Voice with Impact Proposal
8/4/2025, Due 9/9/2025
BIO
Born
1964, Cartersville, Georgia, USA
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Spanish: Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, 1987.
79 hours toward an additional, interdisciplinary degree in International Relations; emphases in Political Science, International and US Foreign Policy, Global Challenges, and Latin American Studies
Artistic Education
Self-taught
Contact
84 Maury Street
Nashville, TN 37210, USA
615-300-8445
amyhoskinscc@gmail.com
Artist Statement
I began writing poetry in fourth grade, and had my first poem published in 1982, my senior year of high school. I enjoyed studying English and Spanish poetry and literature at Agnes Scott College, for my degree in Spanish in 1987. I’m deeply inspired by Spanish and Latin American authors, such as Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda, and Julio Cortazar. I particularly admire the “magic realism” movement in Latin American literature, for its ability to transform fiction into a more poetic medium, through the use of symbolism and inexplicable twists in plot.
I communicate a sense of mysticism and mystery in my writing, as well as heartwarming characters who are grounded in reality, but experience unusual circumstances which cannot be explained.
Writing is a very emotional experience for me, as well as therapeutic art therapy, because I get so close to the storyline, to the characters. I forget my own reality while I am writing.
My novel from 2011, the second edition self published on Amazon in 2023, employs both memoir and magic realism to tell the story of a young American designer in Paris, haunted by her traumatic past, learning how to love again through the support of her boyfriend, counselor, and friends.
My goals for writing include continuing to explore poetic wordplay in multiple languages, and to complete more short stories and screenplays.
Writing Resume
Grant Awards
9/18: THRIVE Grant, for Harvest Hands Community Development Corporation (harvesthandscdc.org), Spoken Word Immersion, Davidson County Metropolitan Arts Commission, Nashville, TN.
Curator
7/2017-24. Host, in person and online monthly poetry open mic, Gestalt Poetry Open Mic, Nashville, TN.
Publications
1/25: December, Dialectics, and Physics, Mayari Literary Journal, Cycle Edition.
2/25: The Songbirds Sing, Pocket Literary Journal.
12/22/24: The Camera and Other Stories, Alien Buddha Press.
10/24: I Am the Dishwasher, Mayari Literary Journal.
7/24: The Semblance of Equal Grace, Poems Since 2019, Alien Buddha Press.
2024: Blooms and Eternal Plastic Flowers, Bronze Bird Review.
2023: Second Edition, Rebekah’s Closet, self-published on Amazon.
4/1/22: Three poems published online, Anvil Tongue Press.
12/22: It’s Time and Quality of Life, poems published by SALTWeekly, Nashville, TN.
7/22: When Trees Were God, and Disrupted Shamans, poems published online by Anvil Tongue Press, online.
5/22: Smoke Signals to a System, poem published by SALTWeekly, Nashville, TN.
3/22: Underdogs, poem published, Alien Buddha Press, online.
3/22: Bargain with Wildness, poem published, SHIFTWrite, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN.
10/15/19: Self published through Amazon, Volumes I and II of first poetry collection, Nashville, TN.
10/19: Freedom Papers, Gestalt Poetry Open Mic, Feature Poet Anthology, self published on Amazon.
7/18: All Things Planetary, Flatrock Poetry Open Mic, Feature Poet Anthology, self published on Amazon.
3/19/18: Three best scenes from Rebekah’s Closet receive table reading, Female Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
10/11/17: The feature screenplay Rebekah’s Closet wins best in category, Life Has Been Good to Me, Oaxaca Film Festival 8, Oaxaca, Mexico.
10/16: The screenplay Rebekah’s Closet, copyrighted.
9/15: The poems Roots Still Red and To Ideals, published in Calliope Magazine, Nashville, TN.
8/14: The poem Crevices, published, Mo’ Joe: The Anthology, Edited by John Roche, Beatlick Press, Albuquerque, NM.
12/11: Rebekah’s Closet, published on Amazon and Kindle.
12//02-1/03: “Cortazar’s Beard” published in Versal: the Literary Magazine of wordsinhere, Amsterdam, Holland.
9/13/01: Poetic Voices posted "A Greater Strength" along with other poems submitted by poets in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.
9/01: “Memiel” published in Beatlick News, a Nashville Poetry and Arts Newsletter, TN.
1-2/01: Three poems published in WordWrights Magazine, Washington, DC, Issue #21.
Film Production Team
Ryzom Films
With more than 8 years of experience and 20 short films produced, Ryzom Films has a strong narrative vision and will be an outstanding team to make Rebekah’s Closet come to life. As a local French company, they are used to producing films in France and know all the ropes for making it a success and make it come alive in local festivals. They are dedicated, committed and strongly enthusiastic. They work very hard to make all their projects a gentle and happy human experience for all teams involved. ryzomfilms.com
Katia Karenine
I am a director and French photographer of Russian origin. Born of Soviet parents who moved to Paris in 1990, my dual cultural heritage challenges my artistic and humanistic approach. Passionate about cinema, fashion and portraiture, I decided to combine these worlds to tell stories with a cinematic aesthetic. Putting human storytelling, staging and composition at the heart of my projects, I create my sets and direct films with my partner Antoine Szlafmyc, DOP, in a 4-handed operation, using second-hand parts, recycled sets from other shoots and unlikely objects found on the street.
I am committed to representing all types of individuals, beauties, and personalities, with a focus on women heroines and with an optimistic outcome. Many of my projects are inspired by fictional characters as well as public figures who have brought about a change in the way women are portrayed, their inner-beauty and their struggles. My work focuses on self-acceptance, authenticity and inner power, between naturalism, magical realism and absurdity, with a touch of poetry.
Antoine Szlafmyc
I am a French director of photography with more than 10 years of experience and 50 films to my credit. I specialize in narratives, with a strong light direction. I create powerful atmospheres that deliver messages with strength, conviction and commitment. I am particularly sensitive to the issue of sexual violence within the family and to child abuse. I bring sensitivity, delicacy and gentleness to the telling of difficult moments in images within a magical atmosphere. My lighting direction can turn the meaning of a scene on its head with beauty and depth.
Amy Hoskins
I am a writer and visual artist creating with disabilities from my home studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Rebekah's Closet began in two ways :: It was an art therapy assignment from my trauma informed counselor, and in college in 1984 when we began to study the writings of Julio Cortazar, right as he passed away from leukemia in Paris. In the former, the writing assignment bloomed in both light and dark self expression and magic realism. In the latter, I felt that his death and our beginning studies were synchronous, and that I had to take note, read him, and respond somehow one day. It was a creative inspiration that sparked me into many of the dream sequences in Rebekah's Closet.
As author of Rebekah's Closet, I'm acutely aware of the traumatic scenes in the short film script, deeply imbedded in the creative vision of the project, and its potential to help survivors. I will be able to assist with bringing Rebekah's Closet to life, with the sensitivity to trauma, and magic realism brought by the sets, actors, costuming, film crew, pre- and post-production, including the CGI to flesh out the fantasy sequences.
This is my first time co-producing a film. As a professional and an artist/writer, I have helped non profits I've worked or volunteered for, find grants to match their needs and vision many times. From and to provide art supplies to a Native American tribe's children, an immersive spoken word class for disadvantaged young people, to a grant from our local USDA Farm Bureau to fund a year-long garden program for children living in a food desert. I can help find potential funders who believe in the project, and can help it get off the ground.
Logline
Rebekah is an American fashion designer in Paris with multiple personalities, haunted by severe childhood trauma, who learns to love again.
Story/Plot
We find Rebekah in her Paris loft, getting ready for bed. She goes to her closet and pulls out a hatbox full of mementos. She looks at photos of her family, asking, “Why didn’t you treat me like your sister? I’d still be with you…”
We see Rebekah as a little girl inside a woodshed on the floor, confused, crying, in shock, shaking, alternately. We see a man’s hand moving a metal can away, then a lit cigarette in his hand.
Rebekah’s new counselor in Paris talks her through trying to feel safe in the moment, to which Rebekah replies, “I never feel safe. That’s a joke.” Rosemarie is very patient, and gives Rebekah her own blank journal. Rebekah is encouraged, “I always wanted to be a writer.” Rebekah opens the journal, stroking a beautiful blank page.
Rebekah and Rupert are walking their dog in a park. Rupert pulls Rebekah aside, asking if she’s having so much pain, maybe she should go on medication. She thinks she needs to continue to process her traumatic flashbacks, to get the timeline of abuse growing up. He encourages her to ask her counselor about it.
Rupert and Rebekah have woken and are snuggled in bed. Rebekah realizes she can literally feel love again and is glad she went on medication. Rupert sees her face glowing and kisses her, so in love.
Treatment
The treatment of the subject of mental health, specifically healing from severe childhood trauma and whether or not to go onto medication, is true to Hoskins’ experiences, and sensitively portrayed.
Antoine Szlafmyc as Director of Photography and Katia Karenine as Director plan to create a soft, poetic and mystical atmosphere with moody, dream lights and set. Everything will be implied, but violence will never be shown on screen. Sometimes the best way to talk about trauma is not to show it. But to make the public understand and deduct by itself. The healing will be powerful, dreamy and a big sense of Femina will bring poetry to it.
Filmmaking Techniques
Rebekah’s Closet is based on Hoskins’ true story, and originated from an art therapy assignment from Amy’s counselor in 2004. Rebekah’s Closet is full of many of the healing aspects of Rebekah’s severe mental illness, as well as magical ways she sees the world 24 hours a day, including sleepwalking at night in one of her original one-off evening gowns. The novel is part memoir and part magic realism. The five minute version has almost all of the magic edited out for time, but it does shine through at the end in the form of healthy, glowing love.
Each scene of the 5 minute script deeply portrays facets of Rebekah’s healing process, and because of this, the story is as fragmented as she is. One of Hoskins’ mental health diagnoses is Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Rebekah has DID, too. Although DID is the correct terminology, not everyone recognized or understands the new term. For this reason, Rebekah mentions her “multiple personalities.” It is something that Amy could easily rewrite if necessary.
Strong characters in the script drive the plot. Rebekah is passionate, confused, creative, and incredibly affected by her experiences growing up. Supportive people in her life help ground Rebekah, and educate viewers about the vital importance of trauma informed professionals and unconditional, healthy love from family and friends. Rebekah’s support network makes it possible to make progress in her healing journey, which has just begun. All of the versions of Rebekah’s Closet have many happy endings.
Mood board or alternative visual inspiration
Rebekah’s Closet takes place in Paris, which is a metaphor of delightful beauty in stark contrast to her trauma.
In the first scene, Rebekah looks through a hatbox of mementos, and family photographs magically become alive in front of her.
Additional scenes are fragments of her memory, supportive counseling, and the relationship with her loving boyfriend. Most scenes have a warm cozy feel, but Rebekah is in a post traumatic state, having flashbacks, and sense memories.
There are two scenes depicting early childhood sexual abuse. Everything takes place off camera, except young Rebekah’s emotional responses, and a man’s hand alone, moving a metal can and lighting a cigarette.
Katia Karenine as Director envisions visual inspirations from Tim Burton’s film « big fish » and David Lynch’s « Mulholland Drive » with waking nightmares where traumas which remain off-screen but haunt every gesture, every image, in the form of visions..
What will the film look like?
The film will be poetic, dreamy and dramatic.
Katia Karenine will have a narrative and very strong visual approach. She is used to working with symbols: recurring objects (closed door, boxes, sculptures, stagnant water, cracked mirror) that encapsulate the trauma without representing it.
She will direct with a fragmented dreamlike imagery: distorsion, scenes that repeat.
The body will be suggested but never exposed: film clenched hands, breathing — rather than the whole body.
The sound design will be play a major part as well with all off-screen sound and silence that will convey much of the unease and create some tension.
And finally the nature will come as metaphor: organic landscapes (forest, mud road, water) reflecting the Rebekah’s inner state.
Mental Health Themes
Explain: WHAT mental health themes are explored in the film and HOW are mental health themes explored in the film.
The effects on Rebekah caused by her severe trauma growing up are prevalent. She doesn’t want to go onto medication, because she thinks she needs to remember more of the timeline of the abuse before she should agree. Her caregiver and loving boyfriend Rupert is very concerned and intervenes while they are on a walk.
Being outside when this intervention takes place, is saying the hard things out loud in public, and in a beautiful location in Paris, with the comfort of their dog nearby. In the culmination of the film, Rebekah understands that having gone on the medication has helped her.
When Rupert addressed his concern to her on their walk, she was unable to feel love, she was too numb and in shock. Intimacy was almost impossible. In the end, she can feel love, and they are both glowing.
Are you going to collaborate with any organizations or partners?
Our most important partnership is with the award winning film production team at ryzomfilms.com
We will continue to reach out to mental health film festivals, grant opportunities, art therapy, and sexual assault centers, once the film is made. If possible we could host an online screening via zoom as well, with a panel of trauma informed professionals. A question and answer period could follow, with art therapy, such as a poetry or story prompt. This could also be hosted in person during the film festival in June, followed by a breakout session with mental health professionals, many types of art therapy, and access to others affected by trauma.
Lived Experience & Your Connection
How are you including lived experience in your film?
Rebekah and Amy share the same three mental health diagnoses: Complex PTSD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder. During her middle age years when memories were surfacing heavily into her life, Amy resisted medication because she, like Rebekah, was afraid she would lose pieces of the chronology of abuse.
Also, similar to Amy, Rebekah is much more able to feel emotions and focus on love rather her past, after being on medication long enough for it to take effect. Also, implied is her need for so much hard work in counseling, and learning how to cope with the effects as they erupt.
Why you? Why this film? Why now?
Hoskins turned 60 years old in 2024. For her, this marks a new decade of possibility and creativity. She is also more aware of her age, and the clock of limited time on the planet, which gives her a sense of urgency to tell her story while she is still alive to share it.
Mission Statement
Creating an experimental short film about mental illness addresses mental health stigma. It is a way of saying, You’re not alone, to survivors.
Art Therapy :: Creative Process
The origin of Rebekah's Closet the novel was an art therapy writing assignment from Hoskins' then counselor in 2004. What came as a complete surprise, was the writing of 546 pages of a novel entitled Rebekah's Closet. Based on Hoskins’ true story of healing from severe childhood trauma, the novel became both Memoir and Magic Realism. Amy experienced severe childhood trauma, and has many physical and mental health disabilities.
Short Film :: A Message to Survivors
The short film is beautiful, lush, a transformation away from trauma. By creating a short film about healing from trauma, it is our hope to reduce mental health stigma. We want survivors to know that they are not alone. Rebekah's healing journey is fraught, but positive. The loving and unconditional support she receives from loved ones helps her heal and feel love again.
Budget (in USD or CAD)
A realistic and reasonable line-by-line budget for how the $7,500 USD grant would be used, including any additional funding and funding sources if relevant.
Production schedule
Nov 1, 2025 through April 20, 2026 (including any resources, locations, collaborations, etc.)
Work Samples
https://vimeo.com/904058977?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/500913860?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/386445132?share=copy
https://www.amyhoskins.com/rc5min
https://www.amyhoskins.com/rc17min