DIY MFA Radio 144: Telling a True Story - Interview with Herb Freed
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Today I’m thrilled to have Herb Freed on the show. Herb started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York, at the same time producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. Today we’ll be speaking about his book Bashert, which is out now.
In this episode Herb and I discuss:
- When you’re writing based on true events, which elements do you change for the book? Which things do you keep the same? What are some of the considerations that drive these choices?
- Why tell a story as a novel instead of a memoir, if it’s based on true events? What do you need to consider when you are deciding between telling the absolute truth versus the conceptual Truth?
- Write about things you are passionate about. Write the story you can’t not tell.
- How screenwriting can shape a novel writer’s process. What skills transfer over? What aspects don’t translate?
Herb Freed started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York while producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. He has directed and produced 15 feature films most of which have had psychological, spiritual and/or social themes in spite of their commercial categories. He is best known for Graduation Day, a horror film, and Tomboy, a teenage romp, as well as the psychological drama Haunts, and CHILD2MAN, a story of survival during the Watts riots. You can find out more about Herb Freed at herbfreed.com
BashertWould you recognize your soul’s complement in another? Beyond the bliss of actually finding your soul mate, there is a belief that the universe hinges on predetermined people finding their other half, their bashert, to maintain cosmic balance. In Bashert (Bellrock Press; February 14, 2017) author, screenwriter, director and former rabbi Herb Freed immerses us in the heady intoxication and thunderous losses of what it really means to be bashert.
Dan Sobol and Marion Gladstone meet by chance at a screenwriter’s event in Los Angeles. He’s a rabbi turned director known for his cinematic television commercials; she’s a writer and film editor who is recovering from a tabloid-headline screaming Hollywood divorce. From the moment Marion hears Dan’s voice, she knows—and so does he. It’s bashert.
But when did the course of true love ever run smooth? Dan and Marion are soon partners in business as well as life, traveling the world to create movies. He directs, she writes and edits, and life becomes an amazing adventure—until Cancun. There, among the ruins of the Mayan civilization, Marion has an eerie premonition that has the potential to change everything.
Drawing upon his own personal experience, Freed spins a tale unflinching in its examination of life, but weaving along the edge of magical realism. From the bright lights of Hollywood to Mexico, Israel, Paris and the dreamy exhilaration of Jamaica, Bashert is a love story about transcending life, loss and the boundaries we mistakenly place on our lives and our hearts.
For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/144