[Carol Capomaccio]

Anyone need a partner?? I’m available. Thanks! Carol

[Carol Capomaccio]

Carol Capomaccio- Logline and One Page

I continue to learn that fear is a crippling, stumbling block.

Title: Once Upon Another Life

Logline: In spite of her conservative and controlling grandmother Celine’s steadfast opposition, Jessica, a self-harming and cynical 16-year-old, falls for Charly, an eerily familiar transgender teen. Even as tension increases between Jessica and Celine, deep love emerges from Jessica and Charley’s uncanny connection, all while ancestral wounds from their prior incarnation as lovers during the Armenian Genocide in 1915 are revealed.

One Page:

Born into a colorful, ethnic family riddled with secrets and generations of pain, 16-year-old Jessica sinks into a rabbit hole of self-harming behaviors. As an only child to single mom and UU minister Demi, Jessica often finds herself alone with her camera or reluctantly spending time with her grandparents, Celine and Tony.

Being with Papa Tony is comforting for Jessica, but it comes with a price- YiaYia Celine. As the family’s controlling and conservative matriarch, Celine gets under Jessica’s skin. Her need to provide Jessica with unsolicited advice and moral direction is in direct contrast to Demi’s more open and trusting parenting style.

As trusting as Demi is, she worries about Jessica’s marijuana use and potential relapse into cutting. With this in mind, Demi demands that Jessica stay with Celine and Tony during school vacation week. Unhappy with her mom’s demands, Jessica makes the best of it by doing the behaviors her mom thought she would never dare do while under Celine’s watchful eye- chew on marijuana gummies and secretly cut behind closed doors. There’s always a way and Jessica provides a way to get the emotional relief she needs while dealing with a broken heart from a relationship that never materialized.

With Jessica close at hand, Celine believes all is well and under control. Such is not the case when it comes to her own secrets. Celine’s casino gambling addiction and well-hidden battle with terminal illness are demons she keeps at bay, or so she thinks. When sleepless nights get the best of her, Celine buries her head into a good read. Her current go-to is a diary she stole from her dead cousin’s estate. In the diary, Celine’s grandmother, YiaYia Lusineh, writes in great detail about her life during the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

Bored and frustrated with her grandparents’ closed-minded thinking, Jessica storms out of the house to photograph the moon. While setting up shots on the beach, Jessica meets Charly, an eerily familiar transgender teen. Celine is not happy with Jessica’s newfound friendship with Charly and forbids it. Jessica could care less about her YiaYia’s wishes and continues to see Charly.

As Celine reads YiaYia Lusineh’s diary, we flashback to the Ottoman Empire 1915 and learn about 16-year-old Lusineh’s love of cooking and forbidden love affair with Aleni, the daughter of the wealthy family for whom she cooks.

Celine finds herself surprisingly intrigued by Lusineh’s love for Aleni. Perhaps the lost ring that Lusineh asked 13-year-old Celine to find was from Aleni?? Celine never followed through with YiaYia Lusineh’s dying wish. This was something she regretted and chose to push away… until now.

Soliciting Jessica’s help, Celine is determined to find YiaYia Lusineh’s ring. It will be the perfect way to keep Jessica away from Charly and the perfect distraction from what ails Celine. More than that, the journey Jessica and Celine undertake goes well beyond finding Lusineh’s lost ring. Instead, it’s a journey that links the present with the past in a quest to reconnect long-lost lovers from another lifetime.

[Carol Capomaccio]

Hi! I had just started a rewrite of my feature length script when I listened to Hal’s call about SU’s Professional Rewrite class. Needless to say, I signed up immediately- then got Covid! Slowly, but surely I am emerging from a Covid fog bank and into my life again. Looking forward to diving into my script and supporting others to achieve their goals. I am drawn to the sky- thunder cloud formations, endless horizons, the moon & stars against the depth of darkness- out there ‘beyond the beyond’ is my home, for sure. My guilty pleasures include drinking fine, reposado tequila and watching reruns of The Office.