What motivated you to become a writer?

When I was 12 years old, my family rented a cottage for the week. Unfortunately, we were stuck in the middle of a winter storm for most of our stay (it was in Canada). So, we were all bored at home, stuck watching the film Dune over and over again! I stood up and drew my first comic book. It took about 2 years for me to come to term that I had too many ideas and I couldn’t draw fast enough – I needed to change medium. Filmmaking seemed like a perfect transition. I haven’t stopped writing since.

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

I used to have a lot of issues with a blank page, dreading it. I had a few tricks to go around it too! Until I decided that it wouldn’t affect me anymore. And it didn’t! My mission is simple, I create esoteric themed projects with a unique, thought-provoking storytelling style to help widen the audience’s views and reconsider their preconceptions through a fun, entertaining way…

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?

Even though I’m a Writer-Director, I’ve been trained to write freely to not interfere with my muse and my creativity. If I constantly stopped and wondered if I could afford this scene or this location, it would limit me too early on. Instead I write the story as if my budget was unlimited. Later, when it’s time to go in production, then I can limit, reduce or rewrite the big scenes. I have however worked on a couple of 48-hour film projects – where it was important to limit the writing according to the location, the props, the actors and the costume we had access to. It’s a very stimulating challenge for sure!

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

Pandora’s Voodoo (Second Rounder at Austin Film Festival) is my most intimate screenplay thus far. It’s loaded with themes and societal commentaries. A heartbreaking, intimate, mystical, character driven story that engages audiences/communities who are either not being heard/seen (biracial individuals), feel misunderstood (fibromyalgia & empaths), lack representation (seniors), and need new voices on its ongoing emancipation (women). With Voodoo and the Tarot cards, I connect with audiences interested in the occult. With themes like death, forgiveness, passionate love, and parents’ unconditional love, I pique an even larger group’s interest. I hope to widen the audience’s views by making them curious enough to question and reconsider their preconceptions.

I foresee creating Tarot cards themed with Pandora’s Voodoo’s characters and storyline. Various pendulums would also be a great marketing/ancillary revenue. A meditation app recreating the soothing meditation Peter offers to his grandkids. I hope that more people inflicted with fibromyalgia try meditation themselves to sooth their pain. I do believe this film will do good with the media (interviews and such), especially with what we are going through in the current events since George Floyd’s arrest.

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

Excellent! So far Pandora’s Voodoo was named a:

• • • • Finalist, 2020 Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship
      • Second Rounder, 2019 Austin Film Festival
      • QuarterFinalist, ScreenCraft Film Fund
      • CONSIDER coverage by ScreenCraft Film Fund
      • CONSIDER, Diverse Voices Contest/WeScreenplay

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?

After 28 years of studies, practice and experience on the art of screenwriting, directing, producing, and on a panoply of diversified forms of roles on various productions, I find myself at a catalytic moment in my creative career. Although I’m a “first-time” feature film writer/director (even though I have written, directed and produced many short films and worked on many feature films), this screenplay, Pandora’s Voodoo, is original, creative, thought-provoking. I plan to surround myself with an experimented cast and crew, mostly female and/or underrepresented when possible. I have been able to partner with KD Conservatory to provide their studio as a production office and their students as Production Assistants.

Pandora’s Voodoo logline: “Battling last-stage cancer, a runaway prison convict, allegedly guilty of killing his wife, kidnaps his grandson and granddaughter for a chance to share his real story, while being chased by his daughter and the law.”

Pandora’s Voodoo structure is divided in 3 major segments. First, Peter kidnapping his grandkids with whom he slowly bonds as he recounts his story. Second, Jackie and Detective Anderson chasing them – who explore their past as they knew each other a long time ago. And finally, Peter and Pandora’s love and ache story from when they met in 1948 to her death in 1973. The 3 segments merge and find closure in the end.

I’ve been told by a WeScreenplay analysis that this concept “is unique because it mashes up a lot of genre conventions. There is a hint of fantasy and family and crime mystery in it all.” I wrote Pandora’s Voodoo a year ago. I have been sending it to screenplay contests in order to get comments, with which I improved (and keep improving) the quality of the screenplay.

Pandora’s Voodoo is heartbreaking film on race and racism from the 60s to today, on the occult, fibromyalgia, forgiveness, passionate love, and parents’ unconditional, stubborn love. This is a film to start conversations. This film is also me.

Like Pandora, with Rosicrucian/Freemasons parents, I grew up in a world of mysticism. Voodoo is omnipresent in Haiti, and Tarot cards are second nature to my mother. Tarot cards and Voodoo are both vaguely known subjects, hence why I hope to educate my audience a little more on the subject.

Like Jackie, I constantly work so hard that I fear I’m missing out on my daughters’ childhood and growth. Even though I’m a mother, and now a wife, I’m still a woman with her own desires. I remember when I was a single mother and the harsh days where I gave and gave, but felt so empty, lonely and lost.

Like Lily and Victor, I’m curious about my past and wonder who my ancestors were. Being biracial, I never belong in one racial box and it has become a pet-peeve of mine. My origins are a melting pot: Greek, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, and Haitian. Conversations between blacks and whites never include people who are affected by racism on and from both sides.

The urgency portrayed in this story is the need to forgive. We have become a society dwelling in unhappiness, complaints and blames. Holding a grudge makes us angry and eventually leads to physical discomforts and dis-eases. Forgiveness liberates us- which Jackie learns as she frees her parents’ souls.

I’ve written, directed and produced about 20 projects (shorts, webseries, promos) and worked as a 1^st AD on features. I always carry my project to term and aim for quality. You can learn about my career at lunaluzproductions.com, where you will notice that I’m a hardworking, committed filmmaker.

I have completed a business plan and a pitch deck. We are in the process of making a couple of sizzles to promote the film. Our website pandorasvoodoo.com and a Facebook page (facebook.com/pandorasvoodoo) are up and running – to which we will bring more traffic. This project will be in production next Summer 2021 and be an intense 6-day week for a total of 20 days, in Texas.

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

Absolutely! Please find most of my projects on my website: lunaluzproductions.com Pandora’s Voodoo also has it’s own website: pandorasvoodoo.com

I recommend you watch Wanted:Natasha Paris to learn a little more about me in an entertaining way! https://vimeo.com/106851546