Spotlight: Owen Dubeck (To Write Love)

September 12, 2026

Filmmaker Spotlight

To Write Love

Owen Dubeck · USA · 15 min

What led you to creating To Write Love?

I’m attracted to stories about every day people who make an outsized impact on the world. These stories are often the most inspiring to me, and I’ve seen how audiences feel called to take action when they see them. When I came across the To Write Love story, I knew it was a perfect fit and could help get mental health resources to a lot of people.

So much of the story is rooted in the punk rock scene in the early 2000’s, so we had some fun shooting on an early 2000’s low-fi camcorder.

What were some inspirations going into the creative process?

So much of the story is rooted in the punk rock scene in the early 2000’s, so we had some fun shooting on an early 2000’s low-fi camcorder. We also had our animations match the look and feel of MySpace.

Tell us what you hope the audience gets from To Write Love and why is a story like this important to tell?

I hope the audience walks away wanting to take action to help the mental health of those around them. Whether that be reaching out to a friend/family member or getting involved with a nonprofit, there are many ways people can help if they’re feeling inspired to do so.

How did you become a filmmaker?

Sophomore year of college, it was becoming increasingly clear that my economics major wasn’t bringing me any closer to what I wanted to do in life. I then saw a talk by two alumni from my school. They had just returned from shooting a Syrian refugee documentary and raised $90 million for the community. I knew in that moment that that’s what I wanted to do. I dropped everything and taught myself filmmaking from then on.

Film	To Write Love
Director	Owen Dubeck
Section	Documentary Shorts
Shorts Program	Remnants Of Yesteryear
Runtime	15 min
Screening	Sun 27 Sep, 12:00 pm