I am a FILMMAKER

I wrote my first book in 2013. “Mafietta” was its name. The funny thing about writing this book was that as I wrote the words, I saw a movie playing in my head. In those moments, my vision was clear. I was going to make a movie. 

At that time it seemed the strangest thing to say aloud. Who was I? I was a military wife who’d never done much more with a camera than take some pretty cool pictures and an occasional home video. However, the dream would not subside and I knew I had to do it. I could see my future clearly. I would be a filmmaker. 

The first time I had “Mafietta” shot, it was a trailer filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. I sent the director/producer a few hundred dollars and he sent me the finished product. The next time, I hired producer/director Jahmar Hill and he met me in North Carolina and I watched as he and his crew created “Mafietta,” the short film.  That’s when I fell in love with filmmaking. 

The third time I filmed “Mafietta,” I produced it. I upped my budget. No, let’s be honest, I quadrupled my budget and that’s when I won my first award. It wasn’t easy, though. I had to learn social media marketing quickly. It wasn’t enough to just make this film, I had to promote it too. It took me a minute to wrap my mind around applying SEO to what I was doing, but I figured it out. My mother-in-law hired an amazing web designer and he gave me a crash course to help me. I learned to make some simple graphics and the rest is history.

I put the trailer on YouTube and the next thing I knew, “Mafietta” had over 500,000 views. We were selected for a few film festivals. I found myself traveling a bit, meeting people, and suddenly I had my first set of leaves as an award-winning filmmaker. “Mafietta” won the Audience Choice Award at the International Black Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Then it was official, I’d been bitten by the bug. I met some actors I fell in love with and suddenly my search was simpler when it came time to film. A full feature titled, “Church” followed. Click here to watch it, free on Tubi. Then “Blind” came next. It is currently available on Amazon and “Frontin” came next. It is available for rent here.

“Three Days Leave,” my last short film, is complete and premiered in Hawaii in November, 2021. This piece is different than anything you all have seen from me and I can’t wait to share it with you.

We are currently in post-production for our first ever feature film, "Mafiettta 2: A House Divided starring Claudia Jordan and Willie Taylor.

Stay tuned, I feel like Diddy, “Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop.”