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Illustration by Keegan Steele
The film and television industry ebbs and flows: there is typically too much work all at once or none at all. I have been caught in the “none at all” space for a few months now. I recently delivered a major project and hoped to line up another as soon as it ended, but I couldn’t manage it. Everyone I talked to said the same thing: there’s just not much work going around right now.
I’m currently doing what I do best: I’m putting my head down and spending my days writing and developing new projects, because if no one will give me work, then it is imperative that I give myself work. But it is labour- and time-intensive work that is, significantly, unpaid work.
Over the last few months, I could see the writing on the wall, so I proactively started applying for short-term contracts in my industry. Then, as no interviews rolled in, I started applying for full-time office jobs, even though I knew I would loathe one. I wrote cover letter after cover letter for jobs I was both overqualified and underqualified for. Still nothing.
Before my career in screenwriting and directing, I worked in hospitality for seven years and largely had a fantastic time: I made great friends, travelled, had new experiences and learned a lot about food and wine. Two years ago, I took an intensive wine course just because I wanted to learn more about wine for myself. At this point, I’d read a few sommelier memoirs, watched many movies on the subject and made friends with my local winesellers.
When I applied for a server position at the restaurant down the street from my apartment, I was ecstatic to get a quick answer back as well as an interview. My trial shift went smoothly, everyone was very kind to me, and then they offered me a job – but not the job I expected. They, in fact, needed another sommelier to join their wine team. I couldn’t believe my ears. Me, a sommelier? The wine enthusiast who applied to work as a server?
In truth, I was apprehensive to work in a restaurant again. Even though it’s an industry I love, I worked in hospitality when I was a student, and a little voice at the back of my head teased me that I was taking a step back: this was not the film and television industry I had worked so hard to get a foot in.
But this was an industry that actually wanted me. And after so many unanswered job applications, being not only wanted but put up for a position beyond my natural ambition felt so good.
In it, I get to explore a subject I love, make new friends and work in a fast-paced environment oh-so-similar to film and television sets. I’ve discovered that, since I’ve
been away from hospitality, my years spent running multiple departments and people and juggling myriad things at once as a director have made me into an even better hospitality employee.
Now, I write during the day and pour wine at night. It’s an equilibrium I did not expect but that I relish. I’m currently developing a new series set in a restaurant, so, in the end, each one of my jobs is fueling the other.
Elena Sturk-Lussier is a filmmaker with an MSc in creative writing and a penchant for romance novels.
Published in Volume 80, Number 18 of The Uniter (February 12, 2026)
