Dear Brutus Short Film Introduction & Location Visit
Shooting Sites Featured:
The Warwick Institute of Culture - Warwick, NY
Bittersweet Farm - Warwick, NY
Writer/Director's Statement
I want to dispel the myth that you have to have your life path figured out by a certain age and if you haven’t then you’ve made a wrong turn.
The original play by J.M. Barrie is reminiscent of the sensibilities of 1917. What I found intriguing was that the major theme of the play was so potent and tangible to me. I wanted to adapt it into a film that brought the magical elements and the characters’ questions of how they see their lives and choices into the 21st century. I also felt that the story could be made even richer when being presented through the lens of individuals from the global majority. This film feels important for me to make because my friends and I are either in or entering into the ages of many of the characters represented in this work; and what I find is that it isn’t often that we are represented in the stories I see on stage or screen. We have not normalized people finding their way after their thirties or forties. It is never too late to ask, “What do I want to be?” and then reimagine your life. All the characters in the script are at crossroads and are asking themselves who they want to be and what they want to do.
There continues to be a lack of representation of the global majority in fantasy. J.M. Barrie’s writings are considered by many to be literary canon and often, when they are portrayed, those of us from this demographic are left out. I want to create a film that includes us in a narrative piece that has all the beauty, wonder, and imagination of the classic pieces we have grown to know and love.
People who lead creative lives are often not following societal norms, and when you reach a certain age, society begins to decide that you should “grow up” and do things its way. I wanted to center a group of people who have all followed very different paths from the norm and are regular folks that I know and love. Not all of us are going to be Oprah or Ava Duvernay but that doesn’t mean our life's, work and creativity are any less important because we haven’t reached a certain echelon. I know these people and they’re lives are just as beautiful, flawed, inspiring and glorious as anyone else’s. Maybe even more so because they chose a path less traveled.