Synopsis: Set in Eugene, Oregon, Maxie follows a teen couple’s life on the streets, portraying their unrelenting bond through day-to-day journeys and interactions. Despite their disparate socioeconomic backgrounds and upbringing, the two navigate the perpetual conflict between breaking free from drug addiction and the fallible steps to get to sobriety, as intensifying life experiences threaten to push them over the edge and away from one another.

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Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to watch my first, and hopefully not only feature film, Maxie.

Jarrett Bryant, born in Trenton, New Jersey, but raised in Hollywood, CA. I grew up near the major studios, watching film and television productions all around me, and having friends and family members who were starving actors and writers in an aspirational industry. After high school, I attended Los Angeles City College, where I found myself discovering an ability to create characters and develop stories. After two years I began to write plays in Hollywood, casting actors and performing them at small theaters on Santa Monica Blvd. I did a total of four plays, written, produced and directed by myself or a close friend who was also attempting to break into the industry. During this time a play I wrote entitled, “Desertin'”, was a finalist, and eventual runner-up, in the Inner-City Cultural playwright contest. While writing plays I was also working standard jobs while supporting my goal to become a screenwriter, like many others I was determined to master my craft. Two years later I wrote a screenplay entitled, “Dinner with Belle,” that was optioned and landed as a semi-finalist at the Sundance Film Festival. It was then that I knew I had a chance to live out my dreams. However, things slowed after that, until I wrote a spec script for the show “Homicide,” which afforded me an opportunity to write for the television show, “New York Undercover.” I was a staff writer for two years before also working on a “G vs. E” a cable show created by the Pate Brothers. The show only lasted one season and the writer’s strike happened shortly thereafter, so unemployment became the word of the day for most writers. However, during that time I returned to writing screenplays and optioned two more: “Ramp Rats” and “Pineland.” The option income was good, but it couldn’t sustain the new family I was creating with my wife, so I shifted to the corporate world, earning a living outside of Hollywood. Eventually, moving up the corporate ladder, I found myself wanting to raise our family away from the big city…away from Hollywood. So, we moved to Eugene, Oregon, a small town in comparison to Los Angeles, but a town that attracted my wife and I due to it’s beauty, schools, and the University of Oregon. Fast forward 15 years, my daughter is attending the University of Oregon, and my son, now 16 and not very interested in spending time with his parents, I decided to fulfill a dream. First I began to write a television series, with the intent to send it to a few connections back in L.A., but I stopped after episode three, because this route had been well travelled and the outcome was not favorable, given the odds. I then considered other options that would include investment, time and the ability to put together a team, find the actors, equipment, and most importantly…a low budget script that could be shot here in Eugene. I wrote and directed “Maxie” without any major expectations, just the opportunity to complete a film and hopefully, when the dust settles, someone out there may be willing to accept it into their festival. And if the stars align, and the proverbial creek doesn’t rise, have it shown on a streaming service. Not asking for much, just an opportunity to add another tick to the bucket list.

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