Writer is a quick study

A short film shot from a script she wrote will be featured on the Showtime cable network in less than a month, and yet Suzanne Knode hesitates to call herself a filmmaker.

But on her first try, Knode wrote a script that was made into an 11-minute film, which will be featured on Showtime’s new series “This American Life” and is being shown at a film festival in Southern California.

At 64, Knode had never written anything creative — not dialogue, scene settings or any of the things needed to make a screen play — but she did know something about being an older woman.

So she wrote a story about one. “Bandida” is a film about an older woman who robs a Burbank liquor store and in the process befriends the Armenian clerk she robs.

The Chicago crew of “This American Life” came out to film the making of “Bandida,” whose cast, crew and creators are all senior citizens living at the Burbank Senior Artists’ Colony.

“I really am sort of in shock,” Knode said.

“Something so major is happening.”

As a resident of the artists’ colony, Knode took a screenwriting class in September 2005 and began to explore her creative side. In about a month, she had her final draft of “Bandida.”

They found a resident of the colony to play the lead and resident film makers to shoot and edit the movie. The film was shot in May of 2006.

“We have professional artists and emerging artists here,” said Maureen Kellen-Taylor, vice president of programs for the More Than Shelter for Seniors organization, which provides classes and programs at the colony.

Knode credits her new-found writing chops to her teacher, Tim Carpenter, who is also the executive director of the More Than Shelter for Seniors program.

“I’ve been teaching seniors writing for a while, and Suzanne is just somebody who came in extremely motivated and extremely talented and found a complete new lease on life with the fact that she thought she could actually do this,” Carpenter said.

“And as a teacher, you can’t ask for anything more than that from a student. I’m not sure I taught her anything. I think I just opened her eyes and got out of the way.”

Knode’s film is scheduled to play at the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival in North Hollywood starting on March 16.

And in June, “Bandida” will make its way to the Americans for the Arts annual convention in Las Vegas.

Despite her story taking off, Knode remains modest and attributes much of her creativity to the colony’s teachers and residents but said she is particularly proud of her senior status and the story of an elderly woman being so accepted in a youth-obsessed, popular culture.

“I mean, I’m a senior competing with all these young people,” she said.

“And I’m right in there.”