Author: Thalia Charles

  As this is my last post, I want to touch upon the various lessons I have learned throughout my personal project.  

1. Art and nonviolence thrive in a symbiotic relationship. Throughout this semester, I learned about nonviolent action not only through my own project but also through others. I believe in order for there to be wider support for nonviolence, we have to view creative writing and other artistic pursuits as effective mechanisms for nonviolence. Many of the nonviolent cases that we have learned about would not have been a success without artistic pursuits, which bolster my project.  
2. Writing a screenplay is difficult. I have been exposed to journalistic and other forms of creative writing in the past, but I have never endeavored to write a screenplay. It can be challenging, because not only are you writing a narrative, you are writing the production and reception of your narrative. At times, it was difficult to continue revising my vision and message to fit the confines of an acceptable screenplay, but it was worth it. Soulforce is still a work in progress, but I am proud of the work I have done thus far.
3. There is still a lot of work yet to be done. By diving into my project and constructing and intimately knowing my characters, I acknowledge that there are people in the world who face challenges similar to those faced by my characters. Our world has a long way to go, but I believe peaceful noncooperation can change the world.  

   Moving forward, I will attempt to turn my screenplay into a film. I will edit the script during the break to reflect my continued dedication to this project and the lessons of this class. I am grateful that I chose this project, it certainly has been worthwhile. 

I am very excited to move to the next stages of my project. Right now,  I am revising my draft, looking for any possible errors with characterization or symbolism, and just general grammatic mistakes. I have settled on a name for the project. The eventual short film will be called Soul Force, a homage to satyagraha, the Gandhian term that we learned from Nagler and Kurlansky. I believe this is an appropriate title because I believe that the active practice of nonviolence is a spiritual experience; it is not easy to choose love instead of hatred. It is even more difficult to hate the opposition but not the oppressor. In my screenplay, Amani certainly displayed soul force in dealing with her sister’s death.

The central focus of my project originally had two features: successfully completing a screenplay and eventually filming a short film. At first, I sought to accomplish both in the first semester. A while ago, I contemplated the time constraints and realized that since this project is interactive and involves other people, it would be unfair to myself, my art, and the actors/actresses and producers involved to cram the actual short film into the remainder of the semester. I made an executive decision to produce and distribute the short film next semester when I will be taking a film class and can understand the intricacies of film better. I am very satisfied with my screenplay and view the short film as a continuation of the knowledge I learned this semester beyond this class.

Currently, I am making decisions about the actual production of Soul Force: its length, soundtrack, schedules, media, among other things. I am looking forward to cementing these details and moving towards the actual filming of Soul Force.

             I have now moved into the draft writing stage of my personal project. I think the most challenging aspect of this stage is dedicating time to write amongst my busy schedule. I’ve found that my habitual devotion to writing has become therapeutic because I can convert my daily struggles into the emotions of my characters. I think writing, is a very effective tool of nonviolence because the pen is truly mightier than the sword.  

             Now that I am in the draft writing stage of my personal project, I have completely developed my film. I am still deciding on a title, as I believe that a striking title is instrumental in getting people’s attention and conveying the right message that I want to relay.   

            The main theme of the movie is the power of forgiveness in the face of a familial travesty as the epitome of nonviolent action, but there are also other themes, such as family, colorism, racism, and structural violence, and social inequities.  

             In the film, Amani, the protagonist, finds out about her sister’s murder while away at college and is, unfortunately, unable to come to her family’s solace because of her distant geographic location. Amani, who has a fiery personality, is devasted by the death of her peaceful sister, Nia. She is forced to deal with this tragedy without her family and seeks appropriate avenues to channel her pain. In the end, she chooses to blog as her outlet and begins a blog in her sister’s honor named Nia Lives. Through the blog, Amani enumerates ways to advocate for real social change and to keep her sister’s memory alive.  

              I’ve decided that the project will be animated because animation allows for more flexibility and creativity. I am looking forward to the next stage of physically producing the film.

I have made some revisions to my personal project since my last entry. Instead of the film focusing on a protagonist grappling with the aftermath of her family member fatally shooting an unarmed civilian while in the line of duty, the film will be about a black protagonist who deals with her younger sister being shot by a black female police officer and uses social media as an outlet after struggling with this violence. The resolution of the plot has the protagonist penning a letter to the police officer and her family. Throughout the film, the protagonist, currently named Amani, will grapple with nonviolence versus violence: how would her sister, currently named Nia, like to be remembered, what would her sister want on the occasion of her death, and how Amani should feel, act, and think about her sister’s death and the greater societal implications of this event. I decided to go this route instead of the previous one because I can only write about what I know, and while I neither have any siblings nor has any of my family members been shot by the police and hopefully never will, I can attest to holding a healthy fear of state/government authorities, especially the police.

While I am not yet at the draft stage of my writing, I am starting to get a feel for my characters, their various personalities, the themes, and the plot. I have also begun to explore in what form I want my film to be expressed, either animation or live action. I can see the advantages and disadvantages of both, and as I delve further into this creative process, I will resolve this. Featured below are pictures detailing the various themes, characters, and plotlines of this short film.