A Conversation with NYFA Alum Lily Malm & Current Student Laila Matuk, co-writers of the festival-favorite script Scent of Marigold

NYFA BFA Screenwriting Alum Lily Malm and current NYFA BFA Acting for Film Student Laila Matuk Molina are the creative co-writing duo behind the script Scent of Marigold. 

Scent of Marigold  was selected in the Final Draft's Big Break 2023 Screenwriting Contest, as well as in the semifinalist round at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards and Dallas International Film Festival and the finalist round at Cordillera International Film Festival. 

Lily and Laila spoke to NYFA about their writing process and how their collaboration came to be. They also shared about the projects they're currently working on and the things they learned at NYFA that helped them on their creative journeys.

NYFA Alumni Network: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you're from, and what brought you to New York Film Academy?

Lily: I was raised in a small town north of Gothenburg, Sweden. Screenwriting completely took over my life way back in 2014, when I walked out of a movie theatre after having seen The Imitation Game for the first time. The craftsmanship of Graham Moore’s adaptation of Alan Turing's life was so masterful and alluring that I simply could not let it go – I needed to understand it. What the components were, what they weren’t, and how they worked in harmony. My profound respect for the craft of screenwriting was what ultimately led me to applying to the New York Film Academy – first to the conservatory program and later on, the Bachelor of Fine Arts program.

Lily Malm, BFA Screenwriting Alum

Laila: I have been in theater and writing short stories for as long as I can remember, but I took an interest in playwriting and screenwriting when one day, my director challenged us to put on an original play. I became fascinated with the freedom and creativity that comes from creating the characters you are going to be performing. My love for acting and writing, both rooted in telling stories that offered emotional outlets, combined into a discipline that has been my driving force to this day. I co-wrote and acted in 16 plays during the span of 4 years, the perfect training for what the New York Film Academy promised, a packed schedule with in-hands experience. Although I'm currently in the BFA for Acting for Film, writing (and most recently producing), are part of my daily basis.Laila Matuk Molina, current BFA Acting for Film student, NY campusNYFA Alumni Network: What projects have you worked on since graduating? Have you won any awards or been showcased in any festivals or competitions?

Lily: Though we were writing Scent of Marigold together before I graduated, we've kept revising the script all summer to prepare for all of our pitches (which of course have been postponed in solidarity with the WGA strike.) The script has so far gotten into Final Draft's Big Break 2023 Screenwriting Contest, as well as the semifinalist round at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards and Dallas International Film Festival and the finalist round at Cordillera International Film Festival. A staged reading of the full script is currently in production at ReadingFilmFEST in Pennsylvania. Beyond Scent of Marigold, I have also been working on a lesbian rom-dram titled Tamica, centered around a long-distance situationship between San Francisco and a remote settlement in the Swedish Arctic. I'm also working on a series of short films for the festival circuit.

Laila: Aside from Scent of Marigold and its run on festivals so far, I'm currently producing two plays: "Filth" by Pedro Fassa and "Spoon-Fed" by Juniel Aeriel Maldonado. Both plays are presented by The Pioneers Theater Club, the first Theater Club at the NYC campus to run productions entirely by students. After producing and stage-managing "Dracula" by Kate Hamill, these two plays are the first original plays written by members of the Club. 

Lily & Laila at the Cordillera International Film Festival in July this year

NYFA Alumni Network: Tell us more about your Scent of Marigold  and the writing process? What inspired you to write the screenplay?

Lily: Scent of Marigold is a feature drama about the family separations at the U.S-Mexico border in the wake of the Trump administration's Zero Tolerance Policy, seen from the point of view of a Mexican American detention officer who becomes torn between her Americanization and the bond she forms with a toddler separated from her father. I first became inspired to write this story when I was working for the Swedish Red Cross and IM, a non-profit organization for asylum seekers in and out of detention, which was what I devoted my time to back when the news of the family separations in the U.S. first broke. It infuriated me. Specifically since I was surrounded by asylum seekers on a daily basis whose stories were very similar. Sweden has regressed quite considerably over the last decade or so and is now led by a coalition of right-wing extremist parties – one of which literally used the slogan "Make Sweden Good Again" in their 2022 campaign – so as you can imagine, white supremacy has blown through the roof. The similarities between the situation back home and the one here compelled me to write about it, which eventually led me to joining forces with Laila. 

The writing process has certainly been a challenge in view of its subject matter and the fact that it is inspired by true events, so we knew research would be an absolute necessity. Endless interviews with immigration attorneys have been conducted, both in the United States and in Canada, as well as interviews with family reunification specialists, ICE agents, deportation officers, FBI consultants, court interpreters, native Nahuatl-speakers, a press secretary of the Biden administration, along with a pediatrician who examined several children from the camps in the early days of the crisis. I was also able to travel to New Mexico where the story is set to learn more about the local culture and vocabulary. The insights I gained into family reunification programs during my time at the Swedish Red Cross turned out to be massively helpful as well.

Table read of Scent of Marigold @ Cordillera International Film Festival

Laila: I first came across the project by browsing through the NYFA Student Hub where the title Scent of Marigold immediately caught my eye. I remember it was around my first October away from my family and my country. During this time, Mexico gets filled with marigolds, by the distinct smell and the vibrant colors of its petals. I was very homesick, both for being the first time away and not being able to celebrate like I was used to and because there weren't any marigolds or its smell nowhere to be found in NYC. After getting in touch with Lily and finding out what the story was about, I was so moved that I joined the process without hesitation. I started only giving insights on the characters and a couple of sequences, but I was so involved that Lily eventually invited me as a co-writer and gave me the space to intervene more directly. 

Writing this script alongside Lily has been one of the best experiences of my life. She is an amazing writer, a patient teacher, and the kindest human being with a genuine heart to help others. The research process that we've had for the script has been hard, sometimes making me take a step back after finding out more and more details about the horrors in the camps. Nonetheless, this process has only inspired me even more to raise my voice and the voice of those who are usually unheard. 

NYFA Alumni Network: What did you learn at NYFA that you applied directly to this project and others?

Lily: The importance of allowing structure to derive organically from within the character. Laila's lifelong background in theatre has really helped us sharpen each character in terms of their psychology, and we just kept pushing until we reached a point where it felt like the characters were writing themselves. And I'm glad we did. The danger of trying to micromanage the structure or quite frankly "shove words" into your characters' mouths was something NYFA truly cautioned me about – and they couldn't be more right. It's a writing lesson I deeply value and one I will keep applying to all of my future projects.

Laila: Getting to know a character from the inside out. Endless acting exercises have helped me approach each character in a more detailed, sharpened way than ever before. There were moments where I asked questions as if I was analyzing the script to act it which naturally sparked conversations and debates to a point where, as Lily mentioned, the characters were writing themselves. I believe having training in acting has helped me become a better writer, just as practicing writing has helped me become a better actor. 

NYFA Alumni Network congratulates Lily and Laila on their success!