Meet Alyssa Katalyna | Writer, Director, Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alyssa Katalyna and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
Finding out what makes you happy is the hardest part of being an artist. You’re so overly saturated with other people’s ideas of how you should be, how your art should be, and how other people interpret that art. It can often feel like you’re drowning. The best thing anyone can do is figure out how their own feelings fit into their work, as if to say, “Hey, this type of art speaks to me. This is how I see myself and this is how I envision my best version of me”. It makes your work much more self-driven. For me, that’s in writing and directing films involving magical realism, monsters, and mayhem. I find the stories that bring me joy and spark my passion revolve around women who are plunged into a terrifying new world and have to ask the questions “Who am I?” and “What can I change about either myself or the world around me to be powerful and to feel safe with myself?” I feel like by writing these women and their struggles I’m talking to my inner child and past self. I’m finding out what it’s going to take for me to feel safe, for me to feel like I’m connecting and really enjoying the people that I choose to put in my life. That’s what makes me happiest, feeling like I can express myself through my through my scripts and my films to constantly be fighting for the best version of me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ll start by saying I’m not unique for having bad things happen to me. Maybe it’s a little unusual to have so many events happen before the age of 26, but I’m not special. Bad things happen to people everyday, I have just finally reached the point where I’m not afraid to talk about it anymore. The hardest part about doing personalized art is having to embrace the trauma in a harsh but truthful way. I make it a point to tell people what happened to me at what was the worst point in my life and how I reacted to it. So often when writing we try to bury what our grief and awful emotional responses looked like with visual effects, noble characters, and an engaging storyline. We deny writing the trauma responses and how they may have come out in truly awful actions or stinging words because it’s embarrassing to admit that we did those things . It’s these brutal admissions of guilt that I write so honestly about, and that is the keystone of my art: truth. “Telling the truth” doesn’t always mean the heartfelt scene where we have our characters hug and cry. Sometimes it’s the leading woman [insert thing in your writing that’s truly despicable. I did that. And I’ll write about it. Of course, in my own life, I’ve since worked through that pain and have started healing from it. In retrospect, I would change everything to have been more patient, kind, and be much more in control, but the truth is in the midst of my pain, I wasn’t. I think that’s important for people to see themselves in what is the real version of you, not the filtered version or the one that you wish you could’ve been. That’s what I’m hoping people will really get to see and identify with in my art. I hope they also consider there’s a way out of it. The worst moments of our lives don’t last forever. It sucks, and it’s hard, and sometimes you just want to give up, but we get out of it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So funnily enough, I actually just had my best friend come visit me in LA and here is exactly what we did. We did a lot of day trips so for us that man going up to Griffith Park for a day and doing the observatory, the abandoned zoo, and getting some really good smoothies that are up in that area. Our favorite day trip by far was in Pasadena where you can visit the Huntington library, which for those of you who are locals know is a really immersive garden experience. It has a rose garden, Japanese garden, Chinese friendship garden, and also has a lot restaurants in the gardens. You can also check out some really cool American and European art in the on site museums, all included for the ticket price! After that we got some Boba over in Alhambra and finished the day off with some Goodwill shopping. I also highly highly recommend Pine and Crane in Silver Lake! Get their, vegan mapo tofu and you will not be disappointed.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The person who deserves the biggest shout out is my producing partner, Dominik Gliatis. We went to Purdue University as undergrads almost 10 years ago now which is absolutely frightening. He’s someone that I can trust wholey and creatively with my ideas and most importantly makes me feel like I’m safe to continue pushing to be a better artist. It may be a shared Midwest upbringing, but having someone that I know shares my values and my ethics in tandem with my creative endeavors is absolutely critical to my success,

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10618738/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssakatalyna/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssakatalynafritz/

Image Credits
Amber Rose Jones (curious photography) Kate Osumi