Juneteenth, Moon Garden, Updates & More

Happy Juneteenth and Summer Solstice

Jun 19, 2023

From WGA

Support for Black creatives on the WGA site: a list of organizations, collectives, production houses, and other lists dedicated to supporting and uplifting Black writers, filmmakers, and creatives of color. Check it out - you may find a resource or networking op you were unaware of or overlooked.

Dr. Joy DeGruy’s Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Highly-recommended eye-opening learning and how to move forward to a more healthy, safe, and equitable world: Dr. Joy DeGruy’s Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Unfortunately the CD of her lectures doesn’t seem available, but the book is also great and you can get an overview here. This material is a must for any creator interested in producing inclusive content.

A Way Forward For Storytellers?

One woman’s perspective: mentioned to Stephen Snyder’s acting class I view my characters as human first, their gender, race, ethnicity, sex preferences, disabilities, whatever, second. Didn’t realize that was novel, but a young actress told me it was a refreshing concept. What I’m talking about is a natural way to avoid both positive and negative stereotypes.

I know characters aren’t as complex as humans. Our job is to give them verisimilitude, which is to make them seem real. A unique mix of details help make a character specific; their humanity - what we all share in common - makes them believable.

We don’t know what we don’t know, so do research, and get input to uncover our own unconscious biases, find fresh perspectives, and keep growing as artist and person.

BTW Check out The Swarm limited series on Amazon Prime. Fair warning, it’s dark, and binge-able as hell. I love all the surprises (great for dramatic storytelling) and compassionate treatment of a very disturbed character - an example of “human first” without stereotyping, and context for the why.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT: the majority of serial killers we know of have been white men, statistically speaking. Just saying.

Recent Client Projects

Story of Hope Feature Documentary

I’ve had the honor to collaborate with Producer/Director Michael Wood and his Never Forgotten Media team in developing the concept and writing the script for an ambitious feature documentary with a dramatic hero’s journey. Will share more later.

Animation Scripts for State of Texas

This is one of two explainer animation videos for the State of Texas, Employee Retirement Service. They came out so cute!

A recent test for me as a scriptwriter: translating complicated material into clear, concise (as possible), visual content with a bit of storytelling and visual metaphor woven in. The production company, Shot Glass, did a great job 💐

Anti-Heroine Audio Anthology/Podcast Series Update

I was wrong last time - Amazon in Canada is featuring Anti-Heroine tomorrow, June 20th, as a “Hidden Gem”! Catch up on these short “audio movies” on Amazon Music or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or homepage on my site.

Opportunity

My friends at Avenida Entertainment Group are starting a distribution platform - and they’re looking for content!

A+ by Avenida is an English-language streaming platform that offers a variety of content highlighting Latin@s and their stories. No more stereotypes and getting your shows canceled. A+ was created by the Latino community, for the Latino community. No matter your background, to submit your relevant produced project, please write to: submissions@avenida.tv