Treewalkers

Born and raised in South-central Los Angeles, I being exposed to the world and its different mediums since adolescence. Living abroad and seeing my own country and her people from the outside looking in has provided me a unique advantage at understanding how the world operates. As a Junior high and High school student I was a first-generation busing recipient which was a part of the integration efforts of the late 70’s and 80’s era. This helped me expand my understanding of people cross-culturally. I have been met with the oddest of questions as a result for who I am and what people perceive simply based on my origin and appearance.
As a career, I have 15 years as a social worker for Child Protective Services and following retirement from this agency, I taught political science classes at two local community colleges. Most of my students varied from as far away as Russia, Kazakhstan, Laos, China, Nigeria, South Africa and India. Teaching has been gratifying but telling stories and interweaving my experiences and knowledge into my stories would be the ultimate pastime.
Film, especially photography has always been an integral part of my life since childhood. Conveying life's magic as a member of my high school's yearbook staff to present day as a re-entry graduate student at UCLA's Extension program in film. Presently I am on the Director's track with 2 quarters to complete the program. I also find myself wanting to study cinematography as well since that is my childhood background. To date, with two completed screenplays to my name and 12 other synopsis’ and five treatments, I am eager to learn more and move forward into their development and future career as both a writer and director.
With the five screenplays that I have completed I have received a Quarterfinal Award by Screen Craft last year and with the more recent screenplay a two top ten finalist awards at the Cannes Screenplay competition in 2019. I am in awe at my growth and feel with every form of recognition received it compels me to push on further, harder and with more zeal than ever before. Relying heavily on both my personal library, rare book collection and the information highway, I feel that my creativity is near full bloom. I anticipate continued progress and measurable success as time progresses. I am not genre-specific as I have stories that are four quadrant ranging from inspirational drama’s, dramedy and romance to suspense thrillers and science fiction. A movie addict, I have a few favorite directors from Alejandro Cuaron, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson and of course Francis Ford Coppola.
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