The Western Habit
Writers: Ian Olds and Paul Felten
Awarded $15,000 2011
Link: www.fixerdoc.com

ABOUT THE FILM
An Afghan journalist is exiled from his war-torn home to a small, bohemian community in Northern California. He struggles to find a new life for himself while juggling a low-paying job on the local police blotter, a meddling avant-garde theater director and a sexually charged relationship with his roommate, who is also the town sheriff.




ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Ian Olds is a director of both narrative and documentary work. Most recently he directed Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (winner of top jury prizes at Tribeca and Madrid, acquired by HBO, and nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism). Other credits include the Iraq war doc Occupation: Dreamland (short-listed for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and winner of a 2006 Independent Spirit Award). Olds’ short narrative films have played numerous festivals around the world including Sundance, Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand. He received a Princess Grace Award, a Media Arts Fellowship sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and was named one of the 25 New Faces Of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2009. Ian received his MFA from Columbia University’s Film Division and was a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab in 2011. Born and raised in Sebastopol, California, Olds began his career as the editor and co-writer of Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story. Ian is currently co-directing an experimental feature film with James Franco.

Paul Felten received his MFA from Columbia University’s Film Division and is a 2011 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow. His prose has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and the anthology Before and After: Stories from New York (ed. Thomas Beller). Paul has been my writing partner for several years. Together we have written several scripts including the script for my short film Bomb, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.