I've been working hard on a treatment for this film, and I am excited to see where it goes. I've decided to make a story about a young black girl named Mira who is taught about a new spiritual/ancestral realm. She is forced to learn how to navigate it and adapt to this new world... I haven't decided what her conflict will be, but I'm considering having her having to battle some dark force within the spiritual realm, or having her bring the spiritual world to the regular world and having to restore balance between the two... I don't know! There's a lot to think about of course, but I am glad that I have set on an idea and I'm working on it. It's pretty personal to me, too.
I've always been jealous of people who have a strong cultural foundation, or some type of mythology and/or that goes with their culture. Mine was stolen from me when my ancestors were forced to live in the US to work for someone else's gain. I've always wanted one for myself, I can only imagine how grounding that must be. So, I decided to "make my own mythology" if that makes sense.
The film is basically about Mira inheriting this cultural ground from her grandmother. It's been so buried within her culture and Mira has to fight to keep it alive. The world / its spirits are responsible for the internal wellbeing of her people (black people), and it's up to Mira to "restore their internal balance" and to connect her people back to their ancestors. I guess I just figured out the plot while writing this... Ha!
I'll be back with more information soon, but I want to link a blog post that I've already written about. It's the post about the importance of POC Coming-of-Age stories, and now that I'm writing one, it feels more true and relevant. This story I'm writing is kind of comforting to me, even if it never leaves this class.