Today we’d like to introduce you to Jess & Anayancy Thomas.
Hi Jess & Anayancy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thanks so much for your interest in our film project. “We are independent filmmakers based here in Los Angeles who met 9 years ago at church”. Our film project is a story that is near and dear to our hearts as it deals primarily with the devastating effects of broken families, which can lead to depression and sometimes even suicide. Through a powerful story and well-developed characters, we examine and try to find positive solutions to a very real and growing problem. Anayancy and I met at an Entertainment Biz Ministry event that our church at that time, Bel Air Presbyterian, was putting on. She mentioned to me that based on personal experience she had it in her heart for quite some time to either write a book or do a documentary about the long-lasting negative impact conflictive divorce can have on both children and parents. I was intrigued right away because when I was a child, my parents went through a really horrible divorce and I could totally relate from the POV of a child. I remember when I was in my preteens and teens being really confused, depressed and lost. I acted out in many ways, anger, lethargy, drugs and alcohol, and over the years contemplated suicide on more than one occasion.
We met several times to follow up on the idea and both decided that a narrative feature film showing characters going through this would be a much more effective and impactful way to make the point rather than a talking heads documentary.
We set about hammering out the storyline and though the film is not autobiographical there are numerous elements that are clearly things that both Anayancy and I experienced: The sense of loss, depression, hopelessness. Not to mention Faith and Salsa dancing. Working on the story and script was indeed cathartic for us both. We had dear friends who experienced the loss of their child to suicide around that time. A couple of years later, we had a friend who was a parent end their life due to a never-ending custody battle. We believed that there is no greater loss and to truly delve into the depths of this story and how deeply it can impact some families, we had to address this tragic behavior too.
But over time something beautiful did happened, we fell in love and got married. Now nine years later with the help of a lot of talented people and organizations like Film Independent, we have a completed feature film. And through it all we still believe like Raquel, it is our mission in life to use the experience of our pain to help others get through theirs.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Well it seems nothing worthwhile in life comes easily… and we feel this is a very worthy project so of course it wasn’t a smooth road. Writing a screenplay is always a huge undertaking. And with many life events along the way; health issues, deaths in the family, changing jobs and more, it became very difficult at times to stay focused. Nevertheless, we were determined to get the script written and after many revisions, six years later we had a completed script. That was when the real challenge began; raising the money to shoot it. In the Summer of 2018, we decided to shoot a short “Proof of Concept” video as a tool to show potential investors what the film would look and feel like. Around the same time, we also decided to do an Indigogo crowdfunding campaign which we launched in spring of 2019. Even though we had a crowdfunding coach, it was one of the most difficult things either of us has ever done, but we reached 90% of our goal. We continued to pitch potential investors and production entities and were close to making things happen when the Covid pandemic hit. Like so for many others, this became our greatest challenge and for obvious reasons, we had to put our film project on hold. By the spring of 2021, things started to lift and the pandemic was seemingly dying down. We took take a leap of faith and decided to set a production date for July, shooting on an extremely low budget.
Because of the low budget, we couldn’t afford a full crew and each had to wear multiple hats, so preproduction was crucial. Many details had to be worked out well in advance of start of production, which was a challenge as we both have full-time jobs. It was nothing short of a miracle that with an amazing cast and crew, we were able to pull off a feature film on a 15 days shooting schedule.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
ANAYANCY:
Enjoys skydiving
Loves to cook gourmet meals from around the globe
Wanted to become a Nun as a teenager
JESS:
Worked at The Reptile Gardens as a teenager
Is a licensed Pilot.
Worked as an Auto Mechanic for many years and had his own repair shop.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.godandsalsa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godandsalsa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Godandsalsathefilm/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/godandsalsa
