SCREENWRITING
materials available upon request
SINS
Historical Fiction, Drama • Series
Propelled by a detective’s rogue investigation into a missing person’s case, SINS weaves a mystery set in 1995 with a historical fiction drama that spans generations. Three politically-torn lovers — Adilah, Stefan, and Li — attempt to liberate themselves from the tyranny of their countries via a classic painting thought to be destroyed in World War II, only to end up betraying one another for their own alleigances. In the present day of the series, 1995, Adilah lives a history unfolding: the Palestinian diaspora; Stefan lives a history haunting from the past: the recovery of the Jewish people from the Holocaust; Li lives a history on the brink: Hong Kong’s return to China from colonial British rule. Following the summer in New York City when these three lives collide, Stefan returns to his home of Vienna and reports Adilah missing. Detective Erik Holtzer is assigned to the case that appears, at first, to be a gold-digging marriage gone wrong. The truth, however, is a story of survival, hard-fought freedom, forbidden love, the profundity of heritage, the damage of denial, and the revelation of a life-long, multimillion dollar con. Holtzer’s old guard partner in the department is content to take the case at face value. But Holtzer’s instincts tell him there’s more to pursue. When he goes rogue and begins investigating, Adilah's friend, Franci, becomes an unlikely partner in solving the crime, stealing Holtzer’s heart along the way. The investigation retraces Adilah’s last months in Vienna and New York, connecting the complicated love triangle in which she was tangled and, in a deeper sense, traversing the lengths to which war-stricken families will go. It’s PACHINKO — the novel and Apple+ historical fiction series about generational trauma, redemption, and colonialism — meets the social dynamics of race and class and the 90’s New York art scene of the film SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. Told in the format of hyperlink cinema, the season unfolds the way memories do, flashing back viscerally and nonlinearly. Each episode is an emotionally and politically woven mosaic of scenes that teases the intrigue of a missing-persons mystery, as it draws connections between cultures with shared experiences distorted by the lens of time. Based on the novel “Sins of the Grandfather” by Evie Blaikie for Greenleaf Productions. WGA Registration #: 2229005.
A Dangerous Year
Young Adult, Action-Adventure • Pilot
As the daughter of a US ambassador, Riley spent her entire life moving around countries in the Middle East, living close enough to be steeped in any given culture, yet embassy-bound from truly belonging. It was an unconventional upbringing, sure, but Riley grew to love the adventure of new places, learning multiple languages, visiting the vistas of a continent with her own eyes, instead of through a screen. By the age of sixteen, she was convinced she'd seen it all. She'd dined with royalty, witnessed history-making hand shakes, she'd even felt the casualties of a US-led war firsthand, having lost her Iraqi mother in an air strike. But nothing she'd ever experienced prepared her for high school in America. So how'd she end up trapped in the so-called land of the free? This is a coming-of-age story told through an undercover state department mission set in an elite American boarding school. Worldly, yet socially-inexperienced Riley is tasked with covertly keeping tabs on an American tech billionaire’s daughter while the government awaits his latest military software. When Riley uncovers the truth about the software, however, what starts as an "eyes and ears" mission becomes A DANGEROUS YEAR. This fish out of water, action-adventure story is ALIAS meets MEAN GIRLS. Only, for Riley, it's not about survival of the female fittest, it's about figuring out how to fit in without abandoning her true self...or blowing her cover. Based on the young adult novel “A Dangerous Year” by Kes Trester for HoneyBee Productions.