Susan Boshcoff, Former VP Global Acquisitions & Co-Productions at Looking Glass International, Melbourne, Australia
It has come to our attention that Ms Boshcoff falsely claims credit as ‘Writer’, ‘Researcher’ and ‘Story Editor’ as well as ‘Consultant on Episodic Structure’ on the award winning SAVING SIRGA; Journey into the Heart of a Lion series in an effort to promote herself. The series was produced by Tauana Films (Pty) Ltd Botswana, a reputable and long-standing producer of factual content to the international television industry.
Ms Boshcoff has no right whatsoever to these claims. She did offer her services as a ‘Script Consultant’ on the series, but proved so inept that they were terminated immediately.
When Tarina Jozefowicz, as Tauana Films producer and legitimate researcher, writer and narrator on the Saving Sirga series became aware of these bogus claims, she contacted Ms Boshcoff and demanded that she immediately remove the fraudulent claims from Linked In and/or any other digital platforms where she might advertise her services, or face public exposure.
Ms Boshcoff made no attempt at apologising. Instead she replied as follows (Warning: obscene language):
Dear Psycho,
First of all, fuck you and the broom you ride on. I ruined your life? Wow, that’s rich. I didn’t read your full manifesto, you don’t deserve my time. But clearly you have too much time on your hands, so perhaps you should make your “mission” something charitable, like helping those less fortunate, or mining for a new personality. Good luck with that.
Second, get your facts straight. I’m not a partner in LGI & had zero to do with sales. I was done with your project long ago, and yet you still try to haunt me (can’t help the Halloween theme). Life is short, time is precious & mine is not worth wasting on a wretched hag like you.
As for your very direct, personal and professional threats, I will not tolerate harassment, threats or bullying from you or any other asshole like you.
Lastly, this is my private email. Do not contact me here, or ever again.
Ms Boshcoff has yet to make any attempt at apologising or explaining her actions to Tauana Films.
Any further attempts at communication with Ms Boshcoff have proved futile. She has blocked Tauana Films from viewing her Linked In page and refused to answer any emails, so it is impossible to ascertain if the fraudulent claims have been removed from the page or not.
Tauana Films reported Ms Boshcoff’s behaviour to the Canadian Consumer Counsel in Toronto, but we also feel duty-bound to bring Ms Boshcoff’s unprofessional conduct to the attention of international industry professionals, especially script writers and independent film producers, who are working, or may be considering working with her. Beware. If Ms Boshcoff could falsify credits on our production she can do so on yours too.
Even in an open digital society like ours falsely claiming credit for other people’s work and the use of offensive and abusive language by someone who presents herself an industry professional simply cannot be tolerated.
Tauana Films (Pty) Ltd
It’s so sad that you had to face with such a perceived behavior, but where the light is there appears the shadow as well. Never mind, just shine brighter and the dark will desappear!
Lots of love!
A good lesson for her: “Dance like no one is watching, but email like it will be read aloud in court some day.”
What a tactless, graceless and unprofessional email. I fear for any company associated with this person.
Exactly! But it just goes to show you. People are weird!
There are many different kinds of people. Some people don’t have a sense of fair play, boundaries, ethnics. In other words, what they perceive as acceptable is far beyond what most people perceive as acceptable. I’ve met my fair share of this type of person. These people see no wrong in what they do. It’s not that they know it’s wrong, they don’t see it as wrong. None of it. This is why they are defensive. But, that just means they will continue to make the same mistakes until they completely sink their own life. No one has to do that for them.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments Robin.
We agree, people like these will eventually crash and burn, but we do think that they know exactly what they’re doing.
That is why, even though it’s unpleasant and we hated doing it, we decided to expose this person, so that other writers and producers will know about her and be able to protect their work against her.
The wildlife film industry is filled with passionate and ethical lovers of the natural world, but it’s not immune to ruthlessness or exploitation. For a while now we’ve noticed some elements creeping in with no real love of wildlife or knowledge of it. They use our industry to create a good persona for themselves. They do not hesitate to piggy-back to glory on the backs of well-meaning and talented creatives and film makers to make names for themselves.
We do realize that it’s probably happening in every sphere of life nowadays, but it doesn’t mean we have to like or accept it.