Life is strange.
For instance, I think I am in the midst of a karmic experience right now. I am. So let me try and put it into words because, it’s kind of many different things, but perhaps numinous. So it has to do with writing and with film.
I was thinking again today about my Uncle Spence. He was very magical, and as a child I looked up to him no end. He had really wonderful parents in my grandparents. He had a lot of support as a child, but my mother told me a story of how he was kept in bed once? Because of his heart. Anyway, in the 51 years he lived on the planet, he packed in 1000 lifetimes.
When I was little after my mother divorced, it was a very hard time for me. Because I lost “father” and for girls that makes life really hard. Father gives you (after age nine) confidence. To actually do anything. Father is the outer world. So, while my mother would call herself strong enough to do both things? Really, she was not. Lucky is the child who has two parents.
So, I was around a lot of Hollywood in my childhood, because I was constantly sent down on the train to see my uncle. He lived on Cahuenga near the old Hollywood Ranch Market, and we had many happy times together — from the time I was very young, until I was 19. He passed away suddenly, and my whole family sort of fell apart after that. My mother had a breakdown. My grandmother had a stroke. I had to be the strong one. So I stayed in Hollywood at his house with my first boyfriend.
He was an actor. A fine actor.
And dad and my uncle both made films.
So I was around a lot of cameras, for a long time in my early years. I started in for my degree wanting to study photography at Santa Monica College. And I made the mistake of falling in love again, which maybe stopped me? At that juncture. After that I had a normal job and a normal life for many, many years. But then? Just like my own family I went through a series of losses that almost flattened me. Almost. I became a writer. Maybe the writer I always wanted to be, from way, way back when I was just a little girl.
So at first dad made surfing films…
One of dad’s films…
When I was 13, he had started to make other kinds of films. Under a different name, and we were never allowed to see him again. So, it hurts me now to see all the years he might have been a father to me? Like a dad my mother had. She just never really thought about my brother and I in those years. I don’t think my family gave tremendous thought about any of that?
Anyway, my uncle “sort of” filled in for a “father.”
He was my mother’s brother.
So, my Uncle Spence in the 70’s in Hollywood at the end of his life made a few films like that too.
So here is what is weird about this.
My screenwriting teacher?
I think he and my Uncle knew each other. But it is many years ago. Because I saw something.
I mean?
Life is a very strange and magic thing.
Because I consider my teacher to be one of the finest filmmakers on earth? He has won some pretty big prizes. But see, my dad and my uncle were filmmakers too. Those weren’t the only films they made.
But I mean?
What if my teacher knew my uncle, and that all these years later the fates tossed us together. I mean it would be karma so large I can hardly wrap my mind around it.
So anyway…
Last year, I handed him my children’s book. In a few days I will be hearing what he thought? But, I only sent it out to one literary agent, who called it too sweet and lovely for this market. I don’t think so. I think my book is just perfect for this time. I wrote Heart of Clouds to give kids strength.
I guess like I had to have strength once. At 13. When Dad was gone for good. It starts out that way.
So, anyway I sure do have my fingers crossed right now. I really need to get my film made.
xxoo!
Anyway, I took a fab picture of him — teaching… how to be a screenwriter… no easy thing by any stretch.
He sure is a fine one.
Keep your fingers crossed for me…
love from Adrienne
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 