Screenwriting
MICHAEL YOUNG
WRITER
Canada
Award-winning screenwriter, essayist, graphic author and communications writer.
Canada
Award-winning screenwriter, essayist, graphic author and communications writer.
Screenwriting
SUMMARY: A shy teenaged boy follows a handsome young man into the woods where they have sex, but someone sees them. When the handsome young man goes missing, the shy boy fixates on what happened to his love interest. Told over the course of two summers (1992 and 1993) and then decades later, this story is about the things we lose growing up queer, and the journey it takes to find them again.
An interview with Medium after winning the Canadian Short Screenplay Competition for "The Sound of Trees."
The trailer for Season 1 of "We Three Queens" on OUTtv. LOGLINE: An offbeat dramedy about a broke daycare worker and his escort boyfriend who try to make ends meet, while living with a scrappy old widow. BACKGROUND: I wrote and produced this series as a fictionalized adaptation of three years my partner and I spent living with my grandmother before she died.
The full first episode from Season Two of the series. Rattled by a fall at the grocery store, Delores invites her sister Gretchen to visit. Ian pitches a novel idea to his editor mum over belated birthday dinner. Lamar balances nursing with escort work.
An interview with Queerly's Stage and Screen Podcast to discuss We Three Queens ahead of our Season Two launch on OUTtv.
A one-hour drama pilot. 5th Place Winner of Filmmaker.com’s 1st TV Script Writing Competition and Finalist in Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition. LOGLINE: A troubled young woman flees NYC for a cabin in rural Canada, hoping to get a handle on her self-destructive lifestyle, only to find that corruption and decay aren’t unique to big city America.
Podcasts and Blogs
A story about three tragic events and the nature of premonitions.
A blog that examines one couple’s feelings about things through an academic lens. PREVIEW: “M (3:47AM): Politics have me tossing and turning. Their normal abstraction pheels personal. I've spent the better part of the afternoon pulling my fingers through dirt on Facebook, worrying and wondering and trying to find the thing to say that says it all. I need to listen. My brain's fragmented.”
An article about masculinity, rape culture and the expectation of being an ally.
Looking for the best vegan restaurants in Toronto? Our aim is to share the best.
Essays and Articles
An article written for Toronto Star about the social impacts of climate anxiety.
An essay about Queer identity that reviews Sarah Schulman’s Gentrification of the Mind.
Air travel's carbon emissions are high profile, but the local ecological impacts often fly under the radar. An article examining airports as strange environments unto themselves with profound and social-environmental impacts.
An article co-written with Gary Pelletier about three years we spent living with my grandmother. PREVIEW: “Living together in a small, turn-of-the-century brick house on a busy Toronto thoroughfare nicknamed Sufferin'. As Queen D often reminds me, Dufferin used to be a quiet boulevard of tall trees and wide lawns. Today, it's a noisy urban artery home to a mixed population of immigrants, upstarts, queers, and blue collars.”
An essay about our cultural fixation with apocalypse and how that muddies real climate action.
Children and youth are disproportionally impacted by the mental health impacts of climate change. Related anxiety, distress, grief, and feelings of impending doom are increasingly common amongst youth and children, particularly those who have lived through extreme weather events. A report on the impacts of climate change on youth in Ontario.
A look at the arts projects that have shaped Cambridge Ontario's rare Charitable Research Reserve.
A part personal, part academic essay about gender, care work and environmental crisis; part of a collection.
Graphic Fiction
A short graphic novel about a boy who is becoming a cartoon version of himself. Co-written with Caitlin Brubacher.
A short graphic novel about a futuristic society where everything is virtual, even dancing. Co-written with Caitlin Brubacher.