As I have stated before in this blog, and in my forthcoming book "
In My Lifetime: Funny Stories of Life Experiences", my first love has been writing for film and television. I had always been an artistically creative child, and finally came to the decision of becoming a screenwriter during my high school years (with the encouragement of one of my teachers). Over the years, I have written many a screenplay, and have been working to eventually get my projects produced. Though I have become sidetracked in recently years, veering off into the literary field, it was always my intent to return back to my cinematic roots, using that momentum gained from my literary success(es).
I was influenced by the films of the time; independent black films that were produced during the mid 80s and early 90s. I was impressed by the works of
Spike Lee,
John Singleton, the
Hughes Brothers,
Ernest Dickerson,
Mario Van Peebles,and some unknown others that existed. I also remember growing up and watching the so-called "blaxploitation" films of the 70s being rebroadcast on local television. I was inspired by movies like "
Juice", "
Boys N the Hood", "
Menace II Society", "
South Central", and "
New Jack City". It also helped that, at that period of time, you also had the rise of Afrocentrism as an ideology, as well as the rise of 'conscious' Hip Hop music. All those factors together, along with encouragement from one of my teachers, solidified my desire to work in this field.
My
first attempts at writing a feature length script were not entirely successful. There was one project that I tried to write while still in high school, but never completed. It was basically a "hood" movie, or Urban Drama, about local youth involved in the street life. I really didn't know what I was doing; too many characters, not enough character development, inconsistent storyline. At that time, I was too busy trying to imitate what I saw on the screen, and wasn't using my authentic voice. I was trying to do too much at once, and was never successful at it. I eventually scrapped that project, but kept a number of the characters, and used them in some of my other projects, whether cinematic, or in series television. My
second attempt after that ended miserably; a project about racism within the Latino community. I had actually finished that particular script, and let it marinate after the first draft. Then when I actually
read the draft...I thought that it was absolute garbage, and threw it out. I'm
STILL trying to rework that project as I write this...
Third time's a charm. I had written a particular script called "
Suicide Amy", an Urban Drama about the tragic life and violent death of a young innercity Afro Latina as told from the perspective of her male best friend who witnessed her demise. I was very proud of that script when I wrote it; still being a kid of 18/19 at the time. It helped me to share my voice on the plight of society, and also helped me to exorcise some of my own demons that caused me to face my own issues with attempting suicide. That was the first script that I had completed, and felt happy with. I still treasure that script, and hope to one day produce it.
I was able to follow up that project with a coming-of-age Urban Drama called "
Achieve The Dream". That project focused on two urban Latino young adults trying to reach their goals and achieve their dreams of getting out of the streets; one to take care of his young family, and the other to make a career for himself in the music industry. This project is more of an ensemble piece, and I think it worked out very well. I loved that project as well, as I was able to combine my love for music (Hip Hop and Latin Freestyle), as well as being able to tell a story true to my upbringing. Knowing so many musically creative people as a youth, I felt that that particular story needed to be heard. For lack of a better comparison, it's kinda like a Latino version of "Juice" and "Beat Street".
One of my favorite projects to date is a love story that I wrote called "
Fiesta Girl". It's an Urban Love story based off of some song lyrics that I wrote when I wanted to get into music. An Afro Latino love story set to the beat and rhythm of Latin Freestyle and poetry. Rebounding from a broken heart, a young Afro Latino male decides to hang out with his friends one night at a house party to lift his spirits. There he meets a beautiful Afro Latina woman, and they set their sights on each other, hoping to take this instant romance to it's highest possible level. Will their love survive? Will they be able to keep their skeletons in the closet? Will they let their personal demons ruin this relationship...?
One of my more recent projects is a Sports Drama called "
Second Chance Points". It's about female basketball players searching for opportunity and redemption in both their professional and personal lives. The story revolves around the main character as she goes from teenage phenom to professional athlete, and the trials and tribulations that she and her fellow players face; lack of support, team mismanagement, disrespect, personal crises. She is entering the last year of her contract, and the team wants to do everything in their power to get her to re-sign with the team. The team has been so poorly mismanaged during her career there, that she questions her desire to even continue playing the very game she dearly loves! Will she re-sign with the team? Can they convince her to stay? Will she give up the game entirely?
This film is actually quite special to me. I LOVE basketball, and one of my goals when I got into this field was to write a basketball movie. I originally was trying to write a basketball movie about male ballers, but I ended up reading a particular article about the lack of quality roles written for Black actresses, and actresses of color in general, and felt the need to write this film. Also...I was a HUGE fan of the
American Basketball League (ABL) when it was still operational. I was hoping to use their players to star in the film, if not get the league to finance it.
Lastly, I have another Sports Drama called "
Knuckle Up". This project revolves around the life of a professional female boxer as she battles her opponents in the ring, and her personal demons outside of it. A tough innercity sista is given the opportunity to make something of herself as a professional fighter. Being quite rough around the edges, her manager brings in one of his old former fighters to help train her. Will she listen? Can she succeed? Will the two be able to get along with each other? Will she be able to dominate the sport as predicted, or will she let her demons cause her to spiral out of control?
People who have read this script have compared it to "GirlFight" and "Knockout". Not bad company to be in. Considering that I wrote it in reaction to the aftermath hype that came after the airing of "Million Dollar Baby" (which I didn't care for, and felt was overrated), I'll take that as a huge compliment. During the whole 'female boxer era' of movies, I never saw one that featured a Black actress (save one in a film festival that I volunteered for). Since I didn't really see one, I wrote one. :)
So there you have it. Those are the projects that I currently have in my stable that are complete, and ready for production. I still have others that I cam currently working on, and hope to complete soon. I am now trying my hand at some action films, using African Martial Arts and Afrocentric themes. Once they're completed and protected, I'll tell you all about them.,
Stay tuned.....
