films

Black Sea Rose

Black Sea Rose (co-written with Jillian Reilly) is based on the true story of Marolen Mullinax.  It follows the journey of Patricia Lawrence, a sheltered Texas divorcee on the verge of emotional collapse over the premature death of her daughter.  Defying her family’s skepticism, Patricia moves to post-Communist Romania to volunteer for an organization caring for HIV-positive orphans.  But when the money dries up and the group pulls out, she must confront her deep-rooted guilt in order to stay on alone while hostile adversaries not only put the children’s survival at risk, but her own.

  • Top 50 script (out of 8,191 submissions) in the 2021 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Best Original Drama Screenplay winner in the 2019 Richmond International Film Festival
  • Top 6% in the 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Top 10% in the 2018 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Semi-Finalist (top 2%) in the 2017 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
  • Top 15% in the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Top 15% in the 2016 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
  • Semi-Finalist (top 5%) in the 2016 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards
  • Quarter-Finalist (top 5%) in the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Semi-Finalist in the 2015 Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition
  • Semi-Finalist in the 2014 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest
  • Top 15% in the 2014 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
  • Semi-Finalist (top 2%) in the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Quarter-Finalist (top 12%) in the 2013 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest
  • Quarter-Finalist (top 10%) in the 2013 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards
  • “Humanitarian Award” Winner in the 2012 Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition
  • Quarter-Finalist in the 2013 BlueCat Screenplay Competition
  • 2nd Place Winner in the Drama Category of the 2012 Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition
  • Top 10% in the 2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
  • Top 25% in the 2012 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards

Co-writer Jillian Reilly recently published her memoir SHAME: Confessions of an Aid Worker in Africa.  The book chronicles her experiences when, as a twenty-three-year-old, she went to southern Africa in 1993 at the close of apartheid, desperate to do good.  She only planned to stay for six months, but the promise of playing savior was just too great.  Jillian’s career in the aid industry flourished.  To all the world, she looked like a successful ‘do-gooder’ — even a precocious one.  If only she weren’t being suffocated by her own sense of futility.  Shame is her story: the story of a young American woman growing up, and old, in Africa.  Realizing her own limitations, and the sorry realities of the big business of doing good.

You may find the book on iTunes and Amazon.com.