Atlanta-based teen screenwriter Riley Wu honored at national film festivals

Riley Wu was just 14 when the screenplay for the feature film When Poet Paint the Rain was complete. It took about a month. 

“The phrase is grammatically incorrect, but at the time [on a rainy day], with my half-spoken English, it sounded very right to me,” Wu says of the work’s title.

In 2019, Wu departed China and came to Atlanta to live with a host family and pursue dreams in the film industry. Once in-country and armed with a modest budget, the ambitious teen dove in headfirst. In addition to the writing, there was plenty of other work — directing, producing, casting, location scouting, acting and finding someone to shoot. “The editing is still undone; it’s a screenplay,” Wu notes.

Crediting creative allies and contacts made at the Atlanta Film Festival, Wu entered the screenplay into numerous festivals around the United States. “[The Atlanta Film Festival] is an international film festival, and they helped me a lot in finding resources for what I needed —  competitions, a website to sell screenplays; that was a giant opportunity for me.”

Wu was stunned to win the Best Feature Screenplay award at one of those competitions: the Austin Spotlight Film Festival in Austin, Texas. 

“I was very shocked because I got a notification that I got nominated, and I asked if I could go to Austin with my guardian, and my parents said sure. I was sitting alone at the awards show [September 2022] because I didn’t know anybody there. And they called my name.”

Behind the scenes, Wu’s family, friends and guardian were ecstatic and proud, as were teachers and mentors from high school at Academe of the Oaks in Decatur. And then a second accolade came: Poet Paint the Rain was chosen as a finalist at the Los Angeles Film Awards.

“It’s about a young poet, an orphaned teenager, and she writes poems [that] get stolen by a businessman. He steals the copyright and uses her poems. And it goes a lot into her mental health,” Wu says of the newly acclaimed work’s storyline. 

While Wu doesn’t personally suffer with mental-health issues, a close friend does, and Wu has conducted extensive interviews with other sufferers, seeking to gain a higher degree of understanding to raise awareness among viewers. The screenplay is also dedicated to the friend.

“In the plot line, the poet has been manipulated by the businessman, by his gaslighting, [and is struggling] to write more and more poems for him.” To cope, the poet creates an imaginary friend, Wu explains. “The imaginary friend has everything she’s missed as an orphan. And there are other imaginary friends that represent her mother and her father — and the other half of her [that] she’s missing.”

Understanding the complexity of the world at a young age, the screenwriter finds human interaction and empathy to be deeply inspiring. 

“A lot of times, reading the news, I imagine myself in those situations, trying to feel what those people are feeling,” Wu explains. In Atlanta, even the melting pot of Waffle House has become a source of inspiration for the young screenwriter. “For example, I’ve heard a woman telling her husband about her hard work and her hardships.”

For Wu, simply strolling around metro Atlanta is enlightening, experiencing the culture and drawing perceptions from the surrounding world. 

“I love Atlanta and walking around alone,” says Wu. “Human sympathy and interaction, in general, inspires me . . . it just fits me.”

At present, Wu has another screenplay, this time for a short film also traveling the festival circuit, as well as another short from the holiday break.  

When asked for advice to share with other budding screenwriters, Wu declares, “I’m usually receiving all the advice. As a youngster, I listen to the old.” 

Then the teen continues, “One piece of advice I’d give any creative writer is to experience the role. That’s a huge part of being a screenwriter. Experience is a big part of it, then you can draw a conclusion from it … from your perception of the world.”

So who is Wu’s inspiration within the world of film? 

“I’m a fan of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. I love his films. His style is unique and weird.”

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Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta freelance writer who specializes in film and television coverage. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, her work has appeared in Oz Magazine and other publications.