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It's A Film Thing Presents: An Interview with Yanatha Desouvre, screenwriter and producer of the short film – The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story

Bio: Yanatha Desouvre is a modern-day renaissance man. He is a full-time faculty member who teaches Entrepreneurship at Miami Dade College, best-selling Amazon.com author, educator, public speaker and filmmaker. Desouvre’s books include the #1 bestselling children’s book - Big Sister, Little Sister, now available in French. He is also the author of the 2016 novella, To Whom Much is Given, the first of the Goodman Chronicles series. 

His latest novella, Revelations: Roads to Redemption (Goodman Chronicles Book 2) pays homage to Wyclef Jean’s discography. It has also been partially adapted as the highly anticipated film, The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story. Desouvre has been featured in various print publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, Miami Herald, Miami New Times, Haitian Times, Sentinel HT, HuffPost and Black Enterprise, and on television outlets that include South Florida PBS, NBC and ABC.  

Deliah Lawrence: Describe your journey of becoming a screenwriter and producer?

Yanatha Desouvre: My journey of becoming a screenwriter and producer is an interesting one. Before I dive into it, I want to take a moment to give a huge thank you to my brothers, Harry J. Jeudy and Samuel Ladouceur. These gentlemen are my brothers. Our brotherhood goes back 30 years. We were all raised in Brooklyn and then Philadelphia. We met in the early 90’s in Philadelphia, attended the same church and had similar rites of passage. We worked as waiters and dishwashers etc. while growing up. We’ve been creative since we were kids. We watched my father, Lucien Desouvre in church write, produce and direct the Christmas plays. We were surrounded by talent in our tight knit community. They tried their best to protect dangers of that time. Some of us didn’t make it. 

Anyway, I was open to constructive feedback and guidance from Harry who wrote and produced with Sam, the short film, A Great Day in Harlem (https://vimeo.com/279183896). Harry partnered with me on the screenplay. He walked me through how a producer thought and worked. With our weekly Friday calls for a year or so in spring 2019 we were committed to adapting two chapters of my novel, Revelations: Roads to Redemption into a screenplay.  

DL: What were some of the challenges with getting this film from concept to the screen?

YD: The first challenge was writing the screenplay. However, with awesome guidance from Harry and constructive and detailed feedback from Rechna Varma, who has an expansive track record in the realm of producing, as the Executive in Charge of Post Production at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto and as an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Miami, we tweaked our screenplay and fine- tuned our story. 

The other big challenge was deciding on a location. We chose Miami because I live there. Then we needed to hire the cast. With a heartfelt conversation with Rachel Finley, we hired Rachel as our casting director. Because of her awesome professional connections, we have the best cast in the world. We hired an amazing crew as well. My film making partners and I were intentional about representation. We have 100% Black cast and our crew consisted of 100 % people of color. 

The last challenge and the biggest was COVID-19. We worked with SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild) and took every precaution in following the CDC Guidelines and so much more. The safety of our cast and crew were paramount. 

DL: What tips would you give to someone hoping to get into the world of film making?

YD: The tips I would give to someone hoping to get into the world of film making are as follows: first, have a passion for this, because it’s not easy and second, work with people you get along with who share your vision.

DL: Can you tell us about your film: The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Story and how you selected the actors?

YD: Inspired by the true events, including the unfortunate death of my aunt in the late 90’s, The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story is a compelling and provocative love story, set in Haiti, haunted by human trafficking and gun violence. It’s about a loving marriage of 25 years that comes to a deadly end, when a husband is compelled to tell his wife his most heart shattering secret. 

In terms of how we selected our cast, we worked with the amazing Rachel Finley, our fantastic casting director who gave us an extremely talented group of actors, like Genji Jacques, the man dubbed as the “Haitian Denzel,” Sandra Justice, the Haitian icon Michelle Desrosiers, Ayomi Russell along with an amazing cast. 

DL: When is the film coming out and where will it be shown?

YD: At this time, The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story is scheduled to come out in February 2021 - Black History Month. We are committed to having a targeted college tour. We will reach out to historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

DL: How can my audience support your film?

YD: They can join our exciting film by going to www.yanatha.com and click on our poster. It will take them to our Indiegogo page where we are 89% closer to meeting our post production costs. 

DL: What new projects are you currently working on?

YD: I am currently working on my next novel, that will be the prequel to The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story (the story part of the Goodman Chronicles series). The tentative title is Chao or Community – Next Actionable Step. Here is the short synopsis: “After a 15-year-old boy, in a close-knit community, witnesses an unspeakable event, secrets are unraveled that tear their town apart.” 

DL: Where can my audience connect with you?

YD: They can connect with me here:

DL: It’s been a pleasure having you here with us today. I know my readers will enjoy getting to know you and your work.

YD: It’s been a pleasure being here, thank you.



Here's a snippet from Genji on the set of The Sweetest Girl: A Forbidden Love Story.



 

 

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