-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?
Like many, I was taken to see Disney’s “Bambi” at an early age. Here was a wonder that transported me to another world, another way of seeing. Then, every Saturday morning, I’d go along to Saturday morning
“pictures” in my hometown, Cardiff, Wales. The reality of the world outside disappeared for a few hours.
In my teenage years, I attended evening movie shows at the universities. Here I witnessed some of the older, often silent, masterpieces. I have used some of those images—the “dead” woman opening her eyes in the coffin—in my own work.
By now I was adding to my enjoyment of the movies, observations about the format of movies (flashbacks, voiceovers, etc.) and noting the differing structures and possibilities between them and stage plays. And so many memorable moments, flashes of genius in the movies. The famous Italian director trying to discover his creativity while an unspeaking motor cyclist ripped through the town preventing characters’ serious philosophical discussions! The huge starship coming over the top of
the movie house. And on and on.
-When did you realize that the story living in your heart had to be turned into a screenplay and then into a film project?
In my academic capacity I taught the works of the great dramatists, so characters, situations, contrasts, intrusions, etc. were part of my teaching. Writing my own plays and screenplays came a little later for me. My background was, by and large, academic. But I didn’t want to add to the piles of academic papers. I was interested in transforming the challenges, physical and psychological, I faced into a “living” form. A racial murder in MY TOWN (the title of the play and screenplay) was deeply troubling to me.
My central character, a newspaper reporter, can answer the who, what and where, but what about the “Why”? And the questioning continued. Why did my American history class (I was a 20-something immigrant), not talk about women, blacks, native Americans? Was the “Mission Era” of California, dominated by the figure of Padre Serra, exact or romanticized? My filmscript, ALTA CALIFORNIA, let me
explore that era through the eyes of a half-breed ripped from his family and now confronted by European soldiers and padres. And then there was Antonietta Portulano, PIRANDELLO’S WIFE, who was suddenly deposited (I can think of no better word!) in an asylum for the last 40 years of her life.
Why? What about her lived-life experience? And on it went—and still goes. Why, why, why? Not just skimming the surface, the accepted, but foraging deep into the live-life experiences of myself and my characters. It wasn’t simply the telling of a story. Writing movie scripts allowed me to revert back and forth through time periods as I tried to piece the modicums together to constitute, hopefully, a whole. Maybe an answer.
-Is there a person you would like to thank for helping you bring your project to life?
Critiques have varied over the years from amateurish and unseeing, to unsophisticated, to uncritical, to valuable. I really thank Wild Filmmaker for opening a world of possibilities for me to share all of my questionings, all of my potential answerings.
-Do you think the Wild Filmmaker Community is helping to turn your dream into a reality?
Wild Filmmaker has been invaluable for me. Here, my script is being judged by intelligent, industry professionals. I feel that Wild Filmmaker’s readers understand my philosophical meanderings as I attempt to understand this thing called living. Wild Filmmaker’s readers appreciate how I attempt to transport these thoughts into filmscripts. And, finally, I feel that here is a viable vehicle through which agents, directors and producers will become aware of my work and, hopefully, consider transporting it to the
“big screen.”
