Bryan Harlow – 2023 Short Film Script Finalist
Burning Virtue
Ellen McNulty, fresh out of prison after 20 years, is suddenly faced with a dilemma between helping a young girl escape Texas to seek an abortion or turning her over to the Right-Wing militia members hunting her down for the governor's bounty.
My stories are generally about fighting back against the encroaching darkness, especially if that darkness has an expensive PR department. In Burning Virtue, Ellen fights in the way she knows how, and is willing to make sacrifices for her conviction.
There’s a temptation to make characters like us in more ways than not, because it’s what we know. Ellen is different from me in every way possible, but we are linked in one simple conviction; those of us who have seen violence, conflict, and oppression in action must protect those that come after.
I’ve been in the US Army for roughly 14 years now, and of course it finds its way into my art, my performances, and my characters. I started acting after my 2nd deployment with the reserves to East Africa in 2019, then took up writing not long after. I’ve produced one of my pieces into the film The One They Wanted about re-assimilation and veteran suicide here in Brooklyn, and I want to do more. To create more. As we all know, if the stories we want to see don’t exist, then we have to make them exist. There are so many stories from so many people around the world who will be born, live, and die without ever putting pen to paper. Or without ever knowing that their stories truly were worth telling. I won’t dare make that mistake.