Film Festival Spotlights Pharmacy Grad Student

Many student pharmacists have taken a turn behind the camera for the American Pharmacists Association’s annual PharmFlix competition, but 1 West Virginia University pharmacy grad student has found success in another form.

In his free time away from hospital rotations, Joseph Fama wrote a short screenplay called “Townhouse of Doom,” according to The Daily Athenaeum. He is currently working toward a doctorate in pharmacology.

In addition to winning accolades at several film festivals, the screenplay was recently announced as a finalist for Best Comedy Screenplay fewer than 20 pages at the Northern Virginia International Film Festival.

The story revolves around a man who receives an invitation to a home where he runs into a monster—who happens to be a puppet. Fama was inspired to write the screenplay, which he describes as a horror-comedy, after watching low-budget horror movies on Netflix.

“I’ve been writing for a really long time since high school,” Fama told The Daily Athenaeum. “I started working on this screenplay my first year of pharmacy school, about 4 years ago.”

Fama told The Daily Athenaeum he would like to see the screenplay produced, and he is polishing up another project called “Donating in Vein,” which won third place at the Downbeach Film Festival.