Help Me Film A Movie That Targets Child Abuse
As a child-rape survivor and a former (award-winning) journalist who's now pursuing a career in psychotherapy (with a focus on childhood sexual trauma and how it's something we can reverse and stop blaming/hurting/hating ourselves over), this script is an ode to learning to love yourself.
I'm asking half of what I’ve raised, but come hell or high water, but if comes down it, I’ll sell my soul to make certain this love-letter to healing reaches those who need it.
I've placed in a ton of screenwriting awards (6 in total, which isn’t easy) for a screenplay I've written that deals with an ASTONISHINGLY overlooked subject in modern times: childhood sexual trauma.
Why do we shy away from it? It's so common and yet folks like me/us/those-you’ve-met don't ever see themselves represented in media where they're justified in their anger and outbursts and, believe it or not, are sometimes healed if they find that elusive key that's somehow right in their faces.
Or perhaps in a movie that shows them what it looks like.
"Witch Water" took me 3 years to write. Bizarrely, two days after I exorcized it from the depths of my soul, I was put into a hospital for pancreatitis that was brought on by a physical addiction (bourbon) that I used to help me through reliving my trauma as I wrote "Witch Water."
This script LITERALLY almost killed me. With any luck, I a team of 12 (who’ve been negotiating deals, equipment, actors, and brainstorming), can come up with a 3-minute teaser trailer that might entice a big-budget company (Amazon / Blumhouse / Focus / Netflix / A24 / Monkey Paw / etc) to take a look at, then sit down with the team and decide on whether we’ve got what it takes for them to fund the rest.
In the Deep South, where this Southern Gothic takes place, "witch water" is a term I learned from my father to describe those watery mirages on hot, humid, rural highways that disappear the closer you get to them in your car. It's so named because you'll find a lot of that in this script, which is full of metaphors for self-harm, self-hate, alcoholism, hopelessness, rage, self-blame, self-doubt, fear of intimacy, an over-active tendency to build walls, and an all-out sense of "Why should I wanna keep living?!" that lots of victims (esp. the kiddos) feel when they can't connect like "normal" people can.
In all, I want it to live for those who want to survive, and those who've, like me, wanted to find the door. The key that unlocks that door can be found in "Witch Water."
Match us dollar for dollar? We’re gonna work our TAILS off to get a production company to notice it and pick us up. We can help those young ones suffering (and the older ones who still haven't found the key) to release that indescribable pain.
I send all of you the most wholesome love and warmest of light,
eva berlin sylvestre
READ THE SCRIPT HERE!
https://www.scribd.com/document/478114748/Witch-Water-A-Southern-Gothic
(feel free to ask if any of the terms are confusing; screenwriting is its own art-form and I'm more than happy to share it.)
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What do you get for your donation? If I can have my way, your name in the credits in the "Thanks to ____" for making this film come to life. And if I win anything, an ENORMOUS party in your honor in place that's really cool and kicked back so we can celebrate together.
