WRITER PROFILE

It’s always great to get together with a large group of writers and investors and keep up to date on what’s new, the screenplay contest, any recent deals, new dealmaker contacts, agents or managers that are looking and simply encouraging everyone to keep going after every dream in this difficult industry. For the hard working writer we want to do as much as we can to continue the exposure and word of mouth in the investment circles of the industry. Another way we do this is with writer interviews that we send far and wide and showcase at all possible meetings and markets.

We want to encourage your writing spirit, motivate you and again give you the accolades you so deserve.

FOR BURAZ

Written by Sabina Vajrača

What motivated you to become a writer?

Growing up in a home filled with books and people who loved them, it was inevitable I would become a bookworm as soon as I could read. By the time I was in third grade my teachers noticed this love of a written word and encouraged me to write as well. I started with poems and short stories, which were published in our school paper, to the great joy of my family. We all know that all it takes for a writer to keep going is some good old-fashioned praise, no matter how minor it may be, so I kept at it, eventually segueing into plays and finally screenplays.

Starting on a blank page is not easy- where does your creativity come from?

I’ve been lucky enough to have a life full of, well, Life. I survived a brutal war, immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee, struggled with PTSD and depression, saw those closest to me die, lived through earth-shattering heartbreaks, many discriminations, years of poverty, but also many joyful and uplifting moments, tinged with philosophy, mindfulness, neuroscience, and a skip in my step, courtesy of old-time jazz. All my stories come from this intimate knowledge of our collective human condition and what I find hard is not coming up with what to write about, but deciding which story to tackle first. It is my goal as a storyteller to shine the light on the darkness within us all and remind us that we’re in it together, and that the light is there as well, if we just open our eyes to it.

Do you write projects knowing that so many other factors need to happen to get it to screen and does that come into your project creation?

Although my main passion and love lie in directing and writing, I also happen to have a mind of a producer, thanks to the genes I inherited from my family of accountants and economists. Over the years I’ve trained this pragmatic side of me to know when to speak up and when to sit still. I will consult it when first brainstorming ideas and deciding which one to focus on next. Then, as I sit down to write, I let that part go and instead focus on giving my imagination free range so that the characters are created and grow out of my love for them and not out of any fear of how to bring them to the big screen. After the script is finished and has gone through many notes and rewrites, I put the pragmatist hat on again and start dissecting it from a how-do-we-make-this-and-make-our-money-back angle, which I find my producers and investors greatly appreciate.

What is your dream for this project and what other ancillary revenue do you think it could generate? Please include script title in reply.

FOR BURAZ is a Neo-Noir Mystery/Drama set in the Bosnian Muslim immigrant community in Tampa Bay, Florida. I wrote it as a response to my brother Tarik’s untimely death in 2010, in order to shine the light on this lesser-known part of an immigrant experience – that of a child émigré turned perfect American, and the toll it takes on all of us trying to live simultaneously in these two worlds. I find this to be a common phenomenon amongst immigrants, making this story not only intimate and specific to my own experiences, but also deeply universal.

My producing partner Annika Dawson and I are currently looking for financing and attaching talent, with a goal of making it at the end of 2020 / beginning of 2021. Our dream is to see it play at prestigious festivals and secure a distribution deal that not only pays everyone back, but also makes this film reach as wide of an audience as possible (every filmmaker’s dream!)

LOGLINE: When his younger brother dies under suspicious circumstances, and the police refuse to investigate, Kenan, a successful Bosnian-American banker, is forced into the dark underbelly of Florida’s Bosnian Muslim immigrant community in order to uncover what actually happened.

How has your experience been with screenwriting contests for this project so far?

As with every script, there have been lots of “No”s, but also a handful of “Yes”s that made a big difference in getting the traction it has so far. First “yes” came from the Austin Film Festival, where it placed as a Second Rounder in their annual script competition. This was followed by acceptance into the Stowe Story Labs, where it won the Tangerine Entertainment Fellowship, and an invitation to attend the prestigious Nantucket Screenwriting Colony this past October, which was a life-changer both for the script and for me as a screenwriter. Finally, it placed as a Semifinalist in Table Read My Screenplay, Park City this January. All of these successes have helped the script stand out from the crowd and I highly recommend them to every writer I meet.

If you could stand in a room full of investor partners looking at many projects what would you like them to know about you and this project?

FOR BURAZ is envisioned as a “the little film that could” — costing little, but with a possibility of a huge impact in the marketplace when finished. There are 500,000 Bosnians living in the U.S. alone (2 million displaced around the world since the war). Traditionally they’re big film-lovers, eager to see and support any film and TV show that deals with their culture. FOR BURAZ would be the first film specifically about the Bosnian-American experience, the fact that the community is keenly aware of, and eager to see materialize.

We plan on filming this in St. Pete/Clearwater, in the same Bosnian community my family has been a part of ever since we came to the U.S. 20+ years ago. Since most of the main characters don’t speak Bosnian (the curse of a younger generation), our casting is not tied to any specific ethnic group and we aim to cast this with the best actors in mind, both in terms of talent, and marketability.

Finally, both Annika and I are experienced filmmakers, with numerous awards and accolades under our belts. Annika’s latest short screened at Telluride, Palm Springs, Holly Shorts, and was a Student Academy Award Finalist. And I come to this project as a DGA Student Awards Grand Prize winner, a Student Oscars Semifinalist, and the HUMANITAS Prize Finalist, having directed over a dozen short films, a critically-acclaimed feature documentary BACK TO BOSNIA (AFI Fest / Amazon) and a Warner Bros.-financed period feature VOODOO MACBETH.

Do you have any website links for your writing, credits, background, etc that you would like to share?

My personal website, where you can see most of my previous works and read more about me, is www.sabinavajraca.com.

I also recently published an article on Medium about my reflections on the current coronavirus crisis as a Bosnian War refugee, which has been getting a lot of attention, and can be read here: Things to Remember in the Time of Uncertainty.

Thank you!

Sabina Vajrača