Screenwriting
TELEVISION - ORIGINAL PILOTS
Sister Cities
Jazmín Covarrubias, presumptive queen of the upcoming Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas, disappears after she tries to cut down the corpse of her cousin, hanging on the bridge that crosses into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Her sister, Mitzin, becomes her reluctant rescuer -- she'd rather face the possible threat of drug cartels than don one of those infernal colonial hoop skirts. As Jazmín assembles her rescue team, which includes her high school drama teacher, Jazmín lives a life of luxury in the house of cartel boss Aníbal Velazco, who is convinced that Jazmín is his daughter, returned from the dead.
Dimensia
Deena Hanamura and Floribeth Beredo are partners in the FBI. They couldn't be more opposite: Deena is a slob, while Floribeth is a neat freak; Deena lives in a bachelor pad in San Francisco, while Floribeth lives with her family in Union City; Deena is human, and Floribeth is a Bungisngis – a laughing, tusked cyclops from the Philippines. Together, they investigate cases involving the many mythical monsters who, along with immigrants from all continents, have crossed oceans to make California their home.
FILM
Übermann Lives!
Bored by an utter lack of challenge and depressed by how dependent humanity has become on him – to rescue kittens, to stop hurricanes, to do homework –the all-powerful Übermann, who can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes and freeze water with his breath – decides that the only thing for him to do is die. The problem? He's invulnerable, and the only person who can harm him, US President Luther Lexington, with his secret stash of Kraptonite, needs Übermann around to maintain US global dominance.
Dance of Pawns
During WWII, the government of Peru deported some 1,800 Japanese-Peruvian community leaders and their family members to an internment camp in Texas. The ultimate purpose? A hostage exchange with Japan, to rescue US POWs. Dance of Pawns follows the experience of Peruvian-born Ichiro Sugimoto, as he and his family are uprooted and forced to another hemisphere. What keeps him afloat is his obsession of Peru's Inca history, and the Andean scissor dance he learned on the sly, despite his father's objections.
Loner's War
Naval ensign Hakano Mori is cut off from his unit after an Allied attack on the Japanese military base in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Wandering through rivers, jungles, and indigenous villages, Mori somehow survives malaria and armies of warriors. While Japan surrenders to the United States, bringing World War II to an end, Mori never receives that detail, and he spends the ensuing decades still at war.
Foreverland
An urban, adult adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. The Lost Boys are a street gang, the Pirates are military veterans, the Mermaids are strippers, the Indians are city-dwelling indigenous activists. The groups' squabbles blind them from a larger, more nefarious threat that seeks to sweep them all away.
Sam the Ham
An adaptation of my stage play by the same name.
YellowCake
· YellowCake follows the life cycle of uranium, from its extraction in the Diné (Navajo) Nation to the contamination it leaves as depleted uranium weapons and armor, used in Iraq, and how this substance winds together the lives of Diné soldier Lily Dehiya and Iraqi citizen Fadillah al-Nassab.
to God, in All His Forms…
· Much to her chagrin, Hildegaard, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, falls in love with Helmut, who is not only a goy, but dresses up as Santa Claus at the local shopping mall. Oy gevalt! Shenanigans ensue.
Sister Cities
Jazmín Covarrubias, presumptive queen of the upcoming Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas, disappears after she tries to cut down the corpse of her cousin, hanging on the bridge that crosses into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Her sister, Mitzin, becomes her reluctant rescuer -- she'd rather face the possible threat of drug cartels than don one of those infernal colonial hoop skirts. As Jazmín assembles her rescue team, which includes her high school drama teacher, Jazmín lives a life of luxury in the house of cartel boss Aníbal Velazco, who is convinced that Jazmín is his daughter, returned from the dead.
Dimensia
Deena Hanamura and Floribeth Beredo are partners in the FBI. They couldn't be more opposite: Deena is a slob, while Floribeth is a neat freak; Deena lives in a bachelor pad in San Francisco, while Floribeth lives with her family in Union City; Deena is human, and Floribeth is a Bungisngis – a laughing, tusked cyclops from the Philippines. Together, they investigate cases involving the many mythical monsters who, along with immigrants from all continents, have crossed oceans to make California their home.
FILM
Übermann Lives!
Bored by an utter lack of challenge and depressed by how dependent humanity has become on him – to rescue kittens, to stop hurricanes, to do homework –the all-powerful Übermann, who can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes and freeze water with his breath – decides that the only thing for him to do is die. The problem? He's invulnerable, and the only person who can harm him, US President Luther Lexington, with his secret stash of Kraptonite, needs Übermann around to maintain US global dominance.
Dance of Pawns
During WWII, the government of Peru deported some 1,800 Japanese-Peruvian community leaders and their family members to an internment camp in Texas. The ultimate purpose? A hostage exchange with Japan, to rescue US POWs. Dance of Pawns follows the experience of Peruvian-born Ichiro Sugimoto, as he and his family are uprooted and forced to another hemisphere. What keeps him afloat is his obsession of Peru's Inca history, and the Andean scissor dance he learned on the sly, despite his father's objections.
Loner's War
Naval ensign Hakano Mori is cut off from his unit after an Allied attack on the Japanese military base in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Wandering through rivers, jungles, and indigenous villages, Mori somehow survives malaria and armies of warriors. While Japan surrenders to the United States, bringing World War II to an end, Mori never receives that detail, and he spends the ensuing decades still at war.
Foreverland
An urban, adult adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. The Lost Boys are a street gang, the Pirates are military veterans, the Mermaids are strippers, the Indians are city-dwelling indigenous activists. The groups' squabbles blind them from a larger, more nefarious threat that seeks to sweep them all away.
Sam the Ham
An adaptation of my stage play by the same name.
YellowCake
· YellowCake follows the life cycle of uranium, from its extraction in the Diné (Navajo) Nation to the contamination it leaves as depleted uranium weapons and armor, used in Iraq, and how this substance winds together the lives of Diné soldier Lily Dehiya and Iraqi citizen Fadillah al-Nassab.
to God, in All His Forms…
· Much to her chagrin, Hildegaard, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, falls in love with Helmut, who is not only a goy, but dresses up as Santa Claus at the local shopping mall. Oy gevalt! Shenanigans ensue.
