STANLEY SWINDLING
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Screenplays
(look books and select pages available upon request)

Features
Nights on Fire
Picture
Drama • Romance • Dark Comedy • 97 pages • 2020
In 2051, the catastrophic effects of climate change have made the planet inhospitable. A group of "Gen Zero" twentysomethings convene in a Palm Springs mansion to celebrate their final hours on Earth.
  • WINNER: Best Graduate Screenplay - Feature, LMU SFTV Awards (2020)
    • ​Voting determined by a jury of industry professionals​
Code of Conduct
Comedy • High School • 103 pages • 2019
Whip-smart high school senior Mary Harrier inadvertently leads a revolution to reform the institutional biases at Christopher Columbus High in this timely and prescient send-up of partisan culture and youth activism.
​
Cut
Psychological Thriller • 108 pages • 2018

A crew of ambitious college filmmakers descend into madness over the course of an unauthorized three-day shoot in the woods. Black Swan​ on a film set.
  • Quarterfinalist in the ScreenCraft Horror Contest (2018)
  • Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition [Drama] (2019)

Dovebird
Drama • Coming of Age • 101 pages • 2017

The suburbs of South Florida, 2006: introverted teenager Kevin Dover falls head over Doc Martens for Harry, his enigmatic classmate. Together, they navigate the wild excesses of the local nightlife, fumbling their way to self-discovery.
  • Quarterfinalist in The LAUNCH Million Dollar Screenplay Competition (2019)
​Pilots

False Crime
Dark Comedy • Half-Hour • Single-Camera • 39 pages • 2020
Ezra Webster is a failed novelist and middling public radio host. When a run-in with an old friend turns fatal, Ezra uses his misfortune to fuel an unexpectedly sensational true-crime podcast.

Lucky Chance
Teen Drama-Comedy • Hourlong • 60 pages • 2020
When prodigal high schooler Chance Wardell joins the ranks of an elite boarding school in coastal small-town Maine, he must learn to juggle the responsibilities of young adulthood while grappling with inexplicable supernatural powers.
Theatre
​
​​(available upon request)

​
CARDI B: An Argument in One Act
Drama • Comedy • Social Justice • 30 pages • 2020

After a dinner party in the dog days of summer, a debate over a friend's microaggression forces Ian and Harrison to confront hidden anxieties over race and privilege. Written in the immediate wake of the George Floyd protests, this incendiary work implores white audiences to interrogate their blindspots, ultimately asking, "Where do we go from here?"
​Coming Soon

The Enigma (Feature)
Thriller • Dark Comedy • 2021
Struggling novelist Dan Alistair attends a secretive retreat hosted by the reclusive Colleen Wirth. He grows increasingly paranoid after befriending Evan, a beguiling newcomer whose fictive writing seems to derive inspiration from Dan’s real life. All About Eve meets Fatal Attraction.

Untitled Killer Thriller (Feature)
co-written with Rachel Cylie Gross; story by Rachel Cylie Gross
Thriller
 • Horror • Drama • 2021
Central Texas, 2003: a chance encounter with a close-knit circle of friends offers Easton, a stoic line cook, a chance to move on from the traumatic kidnapping of his younger brother. After unearthing the group's deadly secret, Easton must use his wits not only to survive, but to protect his troubled mother.

Magic Time (Feature)
Biopic • Drama • Comedy • 2021
In 1960s Greenwich Village, idiosyncratic coffeehouse owner Joe Cino allows a group of queer playwrights to stage radical productions which change the face of theater forever. Based on the true story of the Caffe Cino, the birthplace of Off Off Broadway.

Criticism & Essays

Where is the Final Boy?
Published October 19, 2020 for Film Updates
​

An in-depth examination of the ubiquitous Final Girl trope in horror, and a call to action for Hollywood: where are the sensitive men of genre cinema?
Read at Film Updates
Picture
Picture
The Covert Danger of the Queer Shoulder
Published July 13, 2020 for Medium
​

A new shorthand for film and TV writers is quietly dehumanizing LGBTQ+ characters and evading criticism in the process. A study of the state of queer representation in modern mainstream cinema.
Read at Medium
Two Truths, One Valentine
Published February 2020 for
ÄR Zine
​

Hypothetical imaginations of the oft-loathed Hallmark holiday. In an age of cynicism, is the perfect Valentine's Day still possible?
Official Website
Purchase a Copy
Picture
Picture
Reading an excerpt at the Cypress Dome Launch Party on April 19, 2018.
Joe
Published May 1, 2018 for The Cypress Dome Literary Magazine
​

Creative Nonfiction / Memoir. A hopeless romantic's new relationship leads to surprising discoveries about his mother's complicated domestic history.
  • Winner of the Editor's Choice Award for Nonfiction (2018)​​
Official Website
PDF copy of "Joe" available upon request.

​​Early creative nonfiction and short fiction pieces (2015 - 2017) available upon request.

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  • Home
  • About Me
  • Writing
  • Directing / Acting
  • Professional Experience
  • Résumé
  • Contact