Mark Bowes | Script Revolution
Mark Bowes's picture
Mark Bowes
Palm Springs, United States

As a teen, Mark spent Summers making his own Super-8, stop-motion animation, which resulted in him catching the filmmaking bug. Exposure to 70’s disaster films cemented his desire to pursue film as a career.

Mark's interest in the periphery drew him to punk, then performance and a stint in a heavy-metal drag band in San Francisco. 

Studying filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago followed soon after and his first short film, Get Happy or The Night Judy Garland Started A Riot, screened in numerous film festivals around the world from Montreal to New York, to Glasgow and Tokyo. 

Since college, Mark taught English in Japan, started a company creating promotional videos for small businesses, and for the last 14 years he has studied screenwriting, where his work has earned him accolades from 2023 WritersXwriters Winner, 2023 Stowe Story Labs Diverse Voices Finalist, 2023 Atlanta Film Festival Semifinalist, ISA's 2022 Fast Track Fellowship Top 50 and Genre Winner, Cinestory TV Retreat 2021 and 2022, Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship, Stage 32 Diversity Springboard, Series Fest Storytellers Initiative, WeScreenplay's Diverse Voices and Roadmap's Wise Words screenwriting contests. Mark was also a finalist in the 2021 Austin Film Festival Virtual Pitch Competition and winner of the 2021 ISA Virtual Pitch Challenge.

Mark is constantly finding new stories to tell, be they based on personal experience, inspired by books or emerging from the hidden elements of queer culture. His work focuses on the underdog, the misunderstood, the maligned, heroes who don’t back down, those who refuse to allow others to take away their identity, passion or pride.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Mark is encouraged by the continually emerging visibility of the queer community in the media -

"Growing up in the 70’s meant searching in vain for those who looked like, acted like or resembled you. I can only hope that by pushing itself to include and celebrate all spectrums of human experience, our world will become a better and more welcoming place." -  Mark

Awards

Coverfly All-time Overall Top 1% for
Life During Wartime - Pilot
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35% for
Blame It On The Bossa Nova (Lower East Side Story)
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35% for
Fairy Tale High
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35% for
Fruit Fly

Scripts By Mark

Fairy Tale High
As the 70's disco era comes to a climax, a sexually-confused teen befriends a gender-ambiguous, punk, exchange student who encourages him, against his family's strict Fundamentalist beliefs, to shed all inhibitions and be himself.
Feature Comedy, Drama, Fantasy For sale 104pp
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35%
2 readers love this script
Fruit Fly
Uncomfortable in their skin, a trans-masculine, fashion school drop-out, rages against the world, until they’re forced to live with their conservative father and set on a path of self-discovery, determined to prove their haters wrong.
TV Pilot Comedy, Drama For sale 60pp
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35%
1 reader loves this script
Blame It On The Bossa Nova (Lower East Side Story)
After undergoing electroshock therapy, a closeted playwright tries to rebuild his life, only to be undermined by his conniving sister, who plots to cut him from their inheritance and send him back to the sanitarium.
Feature Drama For sale 97pp
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 35%
1 reader loves this script
Life During Wartime - Pilot
Shunned by his colleagues and friends, an alcoholic, gay actor seeks refuge in a Palm Springs trailer park inhabited by geriatric Hollywood has-beens, where he struggles with sobriety, being HIV+, while confronting 80’s AIDS hysteria.
TV Pilot Drama, Fantasy, History For sale 60pp
Coverfly All-time Overall Top 1%