Screenwriting
Janet’s body of work includes a feature film script called “The Beauty of Disaster.” She wrote, directed and acted in a short film based on the feature, which starred Katherine Henly, Amelia Mathews, and Roger Wayne, featured in the trailer, available below. It’s based on Janet’s observations of the secretive – and occasionally very funny world – of fortunetellers in Greenwich Village.
The short screened in Los Angeles and New York several times, won an award and has been licensed to a cable channel. The short’s website gives access to a trailer, cast & crew info as well as essays by Janet and the film’s director – the very talented Nicole Gomez Fisher – about their creative process.
Janet’s sci-fi film script “Jaguar Trail” won the competition for the Writer’s Lab for Women. The lab is supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and it’s organized by New York Women in Film and Television and the collective Iris. Members of the Writers Guild of America selected “Jaguar” from a pool of 3,500 entries.
More information about these projects along with Janet’s other film, novel and short story writing are available upon request.
“Janet has written some incredibly original script concepts. She has great instincts and an undeniable talent for writing.”
—Felipe Machado, Independent Producer (“Don’t Breathe,” “The Grudge,” “Crawl”)“Janet is a powerful writer who can work across a diversity of genres. She creates strong dialogue and clear characters. As a director, I appreciate how she makes the visuals leap off the page and inspires me to do creative, adventurous work.”
—Deborah Brozina, Filmmaker and Content Consultant“Janet is an imaginative storyteller adept at crafting meaningful fiction with her script writing. Her credo may as well be ‘art and commerce,’ as she recognizes that both play a critical role in media. Janet is the consummate professional and an asset to our profession.”
—Marlene Braga, President, Woman on the Verge Produtions
The Beauty of Disaster
Having special “powers” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – especially when your not-so-gifted sister decides to pick up on the hustling opportunity, and a really hot guy would like to send the two of you to jail. That’s at the heart of The Beauty of Disaster, a romantic comedy-drama with a twist of magic.
The 13-minute film revolves around CLAIRE, a straight-laced marketing executive with a secret handicap: she has bizarre psychic visions that often lead to big trouble. One day, on the streets of New York, she “sees” a very sexy, threatening detective, FRANKLIN. He makes Claire aware that her wayward sister, CLEO, has gotten herself in a hot mess that’s about to go nuclear.
Cleo doesn’t share her sister’s special gift, and beneath her mischievous exterior lies a soul in need of love and purpose. She tells Claire nothing is wrong, but Claire has a vision of what’s going on: Cleo is using her skills as an actress to pose as a psychic. Cleo cons a tough old broad, BUNNY, out of an extremely valuable necklace by convincing Bunny she should hold onto it for spiritual protection.
Claire visits Cleo’s apartment in a state of fury. As Cleo tries to calm her sister down, Franklin bursts in and reveals that he’s Bunny’s son. Claire is at once extremely attracted to him and terrified as he threatens the sisters with a nice long stay in a prison hellhole unless they fork over the bling.
Claire promises him that she’ll extract the necklaces from the clutches of her lying sister. But Bunny, who suddenly realizes she’s been scammed, arrives and goes after Cleo like a lunatic, heat-seeking missile.
BEAUTY is about standing by certain relatives, even when you (and everyone else) think they’re nuts. And it’s about the unexpected beauty that can arise out of moments of pure catastrophe.
It was inspired by conversations with real-life psychics and the detectives who study their occasional scams. The film calls to mind movies like Silver Linings Playbook and Bridesmaids.
Watch the Trailer:
