-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
As a fashion designer, that has stepped into the roll of writer, to screenplay writer and so on. I’ve found the difficulties to be numerous and eye opening. When creating a fashion line, I’m old school in my creation, I believe in sewing what I sketch. I like to be hands-on from the inception of an idea to its development. In the case of Thankful, I’m doing my best to build this project with that same concept in mind. While the creative side of me prefers to build everything myself, I know that is impossible with a project of this caliber.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! My prospective, plain and simple…political correctness has gotten way out of control. It has gotten to the point that there is no story to tell unless it is build around a political push of some sort or another. Which leads me to believe that people focus more on the stories they know as those stories are regurgitated. Sadly, some with political correctness worked into their modern versions.
I can not tell you how fortunate I feel to have created Thankful and not have anything politically alienating connected to it.
A clean story focused on life, loss and living again while growing to understand the importance loving one’s self, without the need of overtly selling nudity, violence or politics.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
I would say there are three main sources for Thankful: Family, Friend/kinship, and Love. It all comes down to not knowing what the highs and lows do to a person. The moment when everything feels like
it’s happening at once. For example, Thankful covers topics such as suicide of close friends, sudden death of family members, divorce, tsunami while pursuing a career in fashion. It opens the door to seeing the true nature of the impact of all these situations at once. All the while focusing on the main character and how he deals with sadness, happiness, love, heartbreak, and trying to create a beautiful world of happiness through art. And all this in, just before the tsunami devastated the Indian Ocean. It’s very impactful.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
George Cukor, from RKO Pictures, would be the director I’d love to speak with the most. For those unaware of George Cukor, he was the third director hired for the Wizard of Oz. I would love to speak with him and ask what his full version of the Wizard of Oz would have been. Being that he cleaned up the look of the yellow brick road along with a number of other technicalities. I’ve often wondered what his version and vision of the world of Oz would have been. The Wizard of Oz was the first movie my mother took me to see at the age of 5. I never belonged to any Dorthy or Oz groups. I just remember being in love with these amazing characters while I was going through recovery. It wasn’t until my 20s that I understood the
amount of directors the film actually had.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
Wild Filmmaker Platform is a gem and a blessing. There’s no doubt that many people are doing their best to bridge the gap between indie and mainstream groups through movies, music videos, and even books. Wild Film Platform fills this gap better than most forums in the world. Creating a mind map is always the easy part; Bringing that map to life is a process that can make or break someone’s success. The Wild
Filmmaker Platform seems to have achieved its goal.
