Embers

A young man haunted by dark, harrowing visions known only to him struggles against his “gift” and his small, southern family’s traditionalist ideals in an attempt to save them from a cycle of death that threatens to make him
the next victim.

  • Reneaux Ruffin
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Genres:
    Drama, Coming-of-age, Magical Realism, LGBTQ+ Lead
  • Number of Pages:
    96
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Reneaux Ruffin

I always feel weird talking about myself. Am I boring? Do I sound stuck-up? I should probably start with the basics. My name is Reneaux Ruffin, and I have social anxiety…even on paper. When I was around five my Army father was stationed to Wurzburg, Germany. No TV was in English, so my brother and I spent most of our time playing outside, playing video games, or watching anime on VHS. Since then, I’ve dabbled in everything from cosplay to choir, but never really found my voice until I started writing. In seventh grade, I wrote over thirty chapters of a fantasy novel, reached ninth grade, and threw it all away. Literally. I guess your voice really changes when you hit puberty. It wasn’t until I looked at my life in the middle of undergrad in broadcast journalism that I understood that I was meant to create, not just write. Maybe it was that militant obsession with order and perfection that helped me somehow mold those ill-fitting positions into something I could use, but growing up in a Black, Southern Baptist military family wasn’t always easy. I was raised by women, strong, loving, supporting, and individual. Being surrounded by these women empowered me to do better for myself and inspired me to do better for the world. I try to lead with my head held high knowing that I’m different, but those differences mix with others to form a beautiful chorus of the human experience through communication and collaboration.

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Writer Statement

Over the course of my life as an artist, my works have almost always dealt with the issues of minorities or marginalized communities in some way. Common themes are mental illness, sexuality, gender, and race. While these are the connective tissues that flow through my body of work, the pieces are not usually about highlighting the difference as the sole source of conflict and thereby normalizing it through showing how those affected cope, rather they are about presenting these non-traditional protagonists in traditional roles and archetypes thereby highlighting that those differences do not subtract from the traditional narrative flow. In other words, a gay or Asian protagonist does not threaten the accessibility of the hero’s story, and therefore deserves a proper platform of representation.
Perhaps it’s my growing up as a military brat and being exposed to so many different cultures and perspectives that drives my desire to open the abnormal to the world; to use my creative work to help those who view it understand those things that have been passed off as inherently different and inaccessible. It is my hope that audiences leave my pieces with a sense of understanding about the characters as well as themselves. While it is not my intention to create pieces that solely exist to change minds, it is certainly my intention to present accurate details that viewers can use to ground their discourse of these ideas that affect their everyday lives no matter how significant a factor they may be.