Since graduating from Ohio University’s School of Film in 2001, writer and director Megan Griffiths has gone on to prove what exactly she has to offer to the media world.
After making her narrative feature The Off Hours, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Netflix, she received a script called Eden.
Based on the true story of Chong Kim’s struggles, the movie follows a young woman who was kidnapped and sold into human trafficking in the mid-1990s.
The film was produced independently by Centripetal Films and based in Seattle. Griffiths co-wrote and directed the film starring Jamie Chung (The Hangover Part Two) and Beau Bridges (The Descendants).
The film premiered at South by Southwest in 2012. There, it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, along with Emergent Narrative Female Director and Special Jury Recognition for Best Actress.
“It’s been a long road waiting for the theatrical release,” Griffiths said in an email. “It was a huge boost to know that audiences were responding to the film. We only hope that the general public will embrace the film the way that the SXSW fest viewers did now that we’re playing in NYC and LA. So far, it seems like that may be the case.”
It was a four-year process to bring the film from the page to the screen, said Colin Plank, a producer of the film and head of Centripetal Films. Plank also said the process was worth the wait, based on both the high accolades and attention Eden has received and how well the film turned out.
“When you work on something for this long, you want it to turn out well, and you hope that people respond to it and it influences them to want to do something,” Plank said. “We’re very proud of the film.”
Griffiths said the film and its success demonstrates that audiences are willing to explore darker and more challenging films.
“It was incredibly heartening to discover that people were being affected by the story we were telling,” Griffiths said.
Currently, Griffiths is in New York working on post-production for her next film, Lucky Them. Griffiths said she feels grateful for the talent she has been able to acquire in both this film and her last.
“I’ve been super fortunate in the level of talent I’ve gotten to work with in all of my films,” Griffiths said.
Additionally, Griffiths said that she has a couple of projects she’s looking at and that she will continue to work in film.
“I am always looking ahead to the next project,” Griffiths said. “I just want to continue making films that I’m proud of and that have some sort of resonance for audiences.”
wa054010@ohiou.edu
