-What is the relationship between cinema and truth?

Director Jean-Luc Godard’s maxim: “Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie.”  The relationship between cinema and truth foretells the central paradox of the medium.   We assume we “go to” the cinema.  At the end we “leave” the cinema.  The film begins at this point and ends at this point.  Between those two points we suspend our disbelief.  And then we leave it all behind.  Or do we?   We leave our reality such as it is, move into a fictional world for a limited time, and then return to reality.  But is it the same reality we left?   Something has intruded into our prior way of seeing.  A dialog between our prior and post worlds or ways of seeing now exists. 

-What kind of change do you hope to inspire in someone who experiences your art?

ALTA CALIFORNIA was, for me, a pursuit of the historical truth of “The Mission Era” in California. It began when I,  an immigrant, took a class on American History.  I soon discovered  it was a “history” devoid of natives, women and blacks.   In my classes in Europe, we were exposed to history in all its forms, magnificent through bloody.   I even grew up in a land, Wales, still under the control of its English neighbors. 

Back to my class in California.  I set myself a task.  I took a moment in California history, ‘Mission Era,” wanting to know the truth.  I soon discovered Edward Said’s truth: “History is written by those who win and those who dominate.” This truth came to me recently when I gave a talk to a university class on what I discovered when writing ALTA CALIFORNIA.  I began the talk asking one question: Name ONE person from “The Mission Era” OTHER THAN Junipero Serra.No answer from these predominantly California attendees.  Not one!  Yet all remember building tiny missions in school.  

My journey of historical discovery had revealed so much hidden by “those who dominate.”  But what to do with this new-found information.  I chose the method noted in a native American proverb: “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe.  But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” 

I chose story: seeing the “Mission Era” through the eyes of a fictional mixed-blood, seeking his “family” after his mother was slaughtered. I have worked on this screenplay for decades.  Finally, the need for an attempt to reveal the historical truth of this period is being demanded.  California Assembly Bill 1821, authored by Assemblyman James Ramos of California and signed into law by Governor Newsom, mandates that,  beginning January 1, 2025, all schools in California are required to teach the historical truth about the “Mission Era” and the gold rush and its effect upon California’s native peoples.

Briefly describe your creative process. How do you select the ideas that eventually become a screenplay?

I don’t just want to tell a story; my aim is to go beyond who, what, when, and try to discover  the WHY of the story.  As an immigrant,I love to explore and write, in serious and comic forms, stories of those who, through choice or happenstance, find themselves strangers in a strange land (or even in their own land).  I share the immigrants’ attempts to “navigate as safely as possible through an ever-shifting landscape of independent and unpredictable powers” (Alan Jacabs), and the difficulty of coalescing given and adopted values and ways of seeing.