Who is Karen Matthews? 

I grew up in a country town living on acreage. I had an over active imagination. Growing up in the sixties and seventies wasn’t easy.  Most people from my era have stories to tell. I put them into short stories. Whenever my life got too hard I would write about it. My form of therapy I guess. As I got older I wrote less because I was in charge of my life and it was pretty good.

I began to travel when I was in my late twenties. I did a bus trip from Kathmandu to London it took three months and it was an adventure. When I arrived in London I had  50 pounds to my name. I lived there for 9 months. I still have contact with the friends I made. I moved to another small town with my beautiful dog ‘Star’ I owned an Art Gallery  for a year. Started a cleaning business then drove a taxi for the next four and a half years. Best job ever!

When ‘Star’ passed I returned to writing but, I wanted to try something I thought was going to be easier Screenwriting, boy was I wrong. I started wring synopsis and loglines I sent my first logline to Script and Storyboard and it got into the Semi Finals I couldn’t believe it.

I didn’t actually write any script until 202I  when I wrote my first pilot Matilda Hews.  I then wrote Blink of an Eye my second pilot. I was invited to Nostos Writer’s Retreat in Tuscany 2023.

While I was in Tuscany I wrote my first short  ‘A Child’s Voice’ The mentor who was there liked it. 

When I returned home I  wrote it into a pilot. Eighteen months later 2024 I had a director and a cast, and with the generosity of a donor we filmed the promotional video  ‘A Child’s Voice’ it has it’s own website www.achildsvoice.com and a FB Page.

I love writing, walking, watching television, chocolate ice cream, any kind of chocolate really and animals.

Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I was 12 years old I think.  My friend’s parents took us to the picture theatre for my birthday. We sat up in the balcony and watched ‘Thoroughly Modern Milly’  I’d never seen anything like it before. The colour, music, dancing! Blew my mind. Even today I remember the feeling I had.

Tell us about ‘A Child’s Voice’

It was a Sunday morning I had the day off from driving so, I took a cup of tea back to bed and opened FB. I hoped I wouldn’t see another child who had gone missing but, I was wrong.  I saw this little girl’s face. She looked scared, dirty uncared for and missing.

It started me thinking.  What happens to these kids? Where do they go? And who speaks to them? With in half an hour I had the story.  Heather’s back story. All about Carl and some members of the team.  ‘ A Child’s Voice’  was born.

Which director inspires you the most?

I watch a lot of television and I direct most of it.  I don’t watch a lot of movies and if I do It’s because it interests me, or one of my favourite actors are in it. I watched Maestro with Bradley Cooper who also directed the film. I didn’t like the film, and his direction seemed to me, like he was trying to hard.

I also watched ‘The Normal Heart’ with Matt Bomer, Jim Parson and Mark Ruffalo. I have never watched anything where all the cast were incredible, and I cried all the way through it.  Ryan Murphy directed brilliantly! It was like he just let them go. So effortlessly. I absolutely loved it.

What do you dislike about the world and what would you do to change it?

I hate how there is no respect anymore. Kids don’t have any boundaries or discipline.  The internet stops people from talking and interacting. 

I would change some laws and maybe go back a few decades where life was easier and nicer.

How do you imagine cinema is 100 years?

The way things are going there won’t be any humans in anything. Supermarkets, television, schools, hospitals anywhere,  all will be run by computers and robots.