Geoffrey S. Fletcher

For British artist and art critic, see Geoffrey Scowcroft Fletcher.

Geoffrey S. Fletcher
Born	(1970-10-04) October 4, 1970 New London, Connecticut
Alma mater	Harvard, NYUTisch School of the Arts
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, Film Director and, Adjunct Film Professor
Employer(s)	Columbia University, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts
Website	GeoffreyFans.IntuitWebsites.com (unofficial)

Geoffrey Shawn Fletcher (born October 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film director, and adjunct film professor at Columbia University and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, New York. Fletcher is the award-winning screenwriter of "Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire and received an Oscar nomination for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on February 2, 2010.

Early life

Fletcher was born in New London, Connecticut, one of three children of Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. and Bettye R. Fletcher. Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. and Todd Fletcher are his brothers. Fletcher attended public schools in Connecticut prior to completing his secondary education at Choate Rosemary Hall. Fletcher was graduated from Harvard College where he concentrated in psychology and from NYU's Tisch School where he earned a Master of Fine Arts. His student film "Magic Markers" which he wrote and directed was shown at festivals and caught the attention of director John Singleton.

Career

Fletcher worked in a variety of temporary staff positions for years as he wrote and directed his own films. Eventually he was appointed an adjunct professor at Tisch and also at Columbia. In 2006, producer Lee Daniels viewed "Magic Markers" and asked Fletcher to adapt the book "Push" by Sapphire which became the film "Precious." Daniels, well known to be "passionately dedicated" to artists "serious about their craft," considered several writers before choosing Fletcher according to a Variety article that included Fletcher among the "Ten Screenwriters to Watch." Fletcher is represented by his manager Leslie Conliffe of IPG, his agent Billy Hawkins of CAA, and his attorney George Sheanshang (the Law Offices of George Sheanshang).

"Precious"

"'Push' is a very gritty book," Daniels said. "And Geoffrey brought his elegance to it. It's a woman's story, but he wrote it in the way that a very elegant man would write it. He's a very classy act." With a script that pleased him finally in hand, Daniels then assembled a team that also included Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and Lionsgate Films and that eventually earned dozens of nominations and awards including five nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Awards. Precious won the three top awards at Sundance and became the first film to win audience awards at both the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. "Precious" earned an enthusiastic public endorsement from 30-year literacy advocate and former First Lady Barbara Bush who with her husband hosted a private screening for 200 and declared "Precious is a new call to action." In recounting the 773 grants given by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy in 50 states, Mrs. Bush wrote, "what saves 'Precious' from a life of despair is a teacher who helps her learn to read and write...If I were to give out a homework assignment, it would be this: go see the movie." "Precious" opened in November 2009 with average revenue of $100,000 per screen in its first weekend, "a feat accomplished only twice before (by Dreamgirls and Brokeback Mountain)" according to Time Magazine.

"Attica"

On February 16, 2010 director Doug Liman and Fletcher announced that they would be collaborating on a film re-creation of the 1971 Attica state prison rebellion. Fletcher said in a statement "Working with a remarkable director in Doug Liman whose family history binds him personally to this project, I hope to create opportunities for re-examination of this dramatic crossroad in our nation's history while contributing to the current dialogue on the value of protecting everyone's rights."

Recognition

Screenwriting Awards for "Precious"

Best First Screenplay 25th Independent Spirit Awards

Winner Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture 41st NAACP Image Awards

Best Screenplay – Adapted Geoffrey Fletcher 14th Satellite Awards

Best Screenplay Geoffrey Fletcher 7th AAFCA Awards

Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted Geoffrey Fletcher 10th Black Reel Awards

Screenwriting Nominations for "Precious"

Oscar Nomination for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) 82nd Academy Awards

Best Screenplay – Adapted 8th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association

Best Screenplay, Adapted [[4th Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award

Best Screenplay 3rd Houston Film Critics Society Awards

Best Adapted Screenplay 14th Florida Film Critics Circle Awards

Scripter Award and Sapphire 23rd USC Scripter Awards

Adapted Screenplay 62nd Writers Guild of America Awards

Adapted Screenplay 63rd British Academy Film Awards

Awards and Festivals for "Magic Markers"

Directors Guild of America Student Film Award, 1996.

Shown at Hamptons International Film Festival October 18-22, 1995.

Shown at Sundance Film Festival (Shorts Program) in Park City, Utah January 18-28, 1996.

"Precious:" Critical Review

Film critics have focused on the challenges of creating "Precious" from "Push," a novel written as a first person diary where the raw power of the violence and degradation must be so carefully harnessed and finessed as to leave the audience captivated and not capitulated.

• Erin Aubry Kaplan posed the question in Salon.com of how to assess the "hopeless story of a ghetto teen... in the Age of Obama." She responds with "'Precious' proves you don't always have to choose between artistic and commercial success; the film's first opening weekend was record-breaking. It's a sign how much we needed to tell this story. And, perhaps, how many stories there are left to tell."
• Jack Mathews wrote: “Without being familiar with the source material, you really have no idea how much work went into the adaptation or how well it was done... 'Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire'...First-time screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher did yeoman's work turning Sapphire's graphic, idiomatic novel into a coherent and inspiring story about the journey of an abused Harlem teenager.”"
• A.O. Scott identifies the script's precise use of force and adept use of language including a memorable line created by Fletcher for the adaptation: a “risky, remarkable film adaptation, written by Geoffrey Fletcher, the facts of Precious’s life are also laid out with unsparing force (though not in overly graphic detail). But just as “Push” achieves an eloquence that makes it far more than a fictional diary of extreme dysfunction, so too does 'Precious' avoid the traps of well-meaning, preachy lower-depths realism. It howls and stammers, but it also sings...Inarticulate and emotionally shut down, her massive body at once a prison and a hiding place, Precious is also perceptive and shrewd, possessed of talents visible only to those who bother to look. At its plainest and most persuasive, her story is that of a writer discovering a voice. 'These people talked like TV stations I didn’t even watch,' she remarks of Ms. Rain and her lover (Kimberly Russell), displaying her awakening literary intelligence even as she marvels at the discovery of her ignorance.”"
• Owen Gleiberman's “'Precious' Displays Power of Film” (Entertainment Weekly) identifies how Daniels uses one of the rich scenes created by Fletcher to position Mo’nique in a painful confrontation with Sidibe that results in masterful and thought-provoking performance that delivers the final push needed by Sidibe: “The more Precious tries to get away from her mother, the more she's pulled back, and the final scene of revelation between them will leave you tearful, shaken, dazed with pity and terror. 'Precious' is a film that makes you think, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' It's a potent and moving experience, because by the end you feel you've witnessed nothing less than the birth of a soul.”
• Conversely, Dana Stevens of Slate disagrees with Gleiberman's suggestion that the "film makes you think" and argues that the film's "eagerness" to "drag" the audience "through the lower depths of human experience" leaves little space for independent "conclusions." Stevens noted that while the film is about improvement and self-actualization, "it wields an awfully large cudgel" in contrast to Scott's view of balance: "unsparing force (though not in overly graphic detail)." Perhaps sharing Mathews' view regarding the daunting challenge of adapting the harsh story of "Push," Stevens' observes that "Daniels and Fletcher no doubt intended for their film to lend a voice to the kind of protagonist too often excluded from American movie screens: a poor, black, overweight single mother from the inner city."