This year’s screenplay entries created quite a stir among the members of the selection committee and members of the jury, enough to force us to delay the announcement several times.

The finalists in the screenplay category are as follows :

REBIRTH
By T.L. Lewis, USA

THE POST OFFICE
By Harris Freedman, UK

CONSCIENCE
By Aicha Brébant, France

THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MOON
By Jeffrey Ryback, USA

THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF JIN JIN WANG
By Jamie Read, USA

TAKU’S QUEST
By Michael Pallotta, Canada

EMPTINESS LIKE A DREAM
By Alfredo Caruso Belli, Italy

The closing ceremony will be held on March 31st & April 1st in Paris at La Peniche Cinema and will include the awards ceremony, public screening of all winning films, and announcement of the winning screenplay at ESFF 2012.

For more information we invite you to go to the festival’s website: www.festival-esff.com.

Excerpt from one judge:

“Rebirth” is a stunningly-visual, extraordinarily-researched story with well-written dialogue and fully-developed characters. Great use of scene transitions and subtext. Judge can feel the writer’s deep attachment and feelings for this personal family saga…”

For more information, visit the Extreme Screenwriting contest page.

Moviebytes.com ranks “Rebirth” in the top five in three genres: Drama, Historical and Romance screenplays.

For more information, view the Moviebytes “Rebirth” profile: http://www.moviebytes.com/ws/WinningScripts.cfm?ScriptID=5137

REBIRTH is an epic classic, glorious and powerful. An extraordinary writer. Coverage by Terri Zinner, Los Angeles.

Rebirth earns another recommendation from the 2009 Dream Quest International Screenwriting Competition by ScriptVamp.

Click Here to View the Full Coverage Scorecard

This year’s screenplay entries created quite a stir among the members of the selection committee and members of the jury, enough to force us to delay the announcement several times.

The finalists in the screenplay category are as follows :

REBIRTH
By T.L. Lewis, USA

THE POST OFFICE
By Harris Freedman, UK

CONSCIENCE
By Aicha Brébant, France

THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MOON
By Jeffrey Ryback, USA

THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF JIN JIN WANG
By Jamie Read, USA

TAKU’S QUEST
By Michael Pallotta, Canada

EMPTINESS LIKE A DREAM
By Alfredo Caruso Belli, Italy

The closing ceremony will be held on March 31st & April 1st in Paris at La Peniche Cinema and will include the awards ceremony, public screening of all winning films, and announcement of the winning screenplay at ESFF 2012.

For more information we invite you to go to the festival’s website: www.festival-esff.com.

Genealogy Connections:

Writing is in my genes…

* Alfred Tennyson, writer Paternal through: Elizabeth Darcy (1584-1650) 12th Great Grandmother of Teresa L Powers Lewis/ 6th Great Grandmother of Alfred Tennyson

Writing is in my genes:

Henry David Thoreau, writer through: Thomas Barnes: 9th Great Grandfather of Teresa L Powers Lewis/ 4th Great Grandfather of Henry David Thoreau.

* Louisa May Alcott, writer “Little Women” and “Little Men”. Related to both Thoreau and Alcott through Thomas Barnes(1623-1691) 9th Great Grandfather of Teresa L Powers Lewis / 4th Great Grandfather of Louisa May Alcott.

* Sir Walter Scott Scottish Novelist and Poet Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Lady of the Lake. (through Paternal: Jaelia Stallard line) 8th Great Grandmother of Teresa L Powers Lewis/ 7th Great Grandmother of Sir Walter Scott.

* Robert Graves (1895-1985) Paternal Browning line: English Author, scholar, poet, and novelist; Robert Graves produced over 140 works. His famous works include The Long Week-End. Through: Arabella Williamson (1676-1737) 11th Great Grandmother of Teresa L Powers Lewis/ 9th Great Grandmother of Robert Graves.

My inspiration for the screenplay “Rebirth” was not sought, but found by “accident” and continues to grow with a passionate desire to tell this provocative story of honor and courage. My vision has never dimmed, as I can see with clarity these brave characters coming to life on the big screen– as clearly as the words that created their powerful world and potent images. Rebirth is a timeless tribute to the real heroes that risked all for the liberty that we might be able to write and speak our heart and minds.

Now, with more than a dozen awards, reviews and recommends of “Rebirth”, this rough diamond is waiting to be polished into a profitable film. I know the production process takes time – to get the word out, to get the script read, to inspire a producer also wanting to leave a legacy.

The Huguenot fight for civil liberty that altered the fate of nations.

When one law, one faith, one king is the rule of the day, those who dare to think otherwise risked being the targets of terror and intolerance. Only a few are brave enough to speak their conscience, but not without the risk of death or dungeon. Soon, the name Huguenot (pronounced hoo-guh-no) is applied to these reformers and dissenters, and many Huguenots and Humanists alike stand together in civil disobedience against the combined corruption and and cruelty of church and state.

The Huguenot persecution began with the bravest and best educated nobles and soon included massacres of  innocent women and children, simply for their stand on the ideals on freedom, the right to speak their conscience and the right to assemble without fear of persecution. This courage and sacrifice begin the philosophical debate on basic civil liberties and directly led to the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution.

“Rebirth’s” history also includes the heritage of Robert Duval, Johnny Depp, Warren Buffet, Steve Forbes, Kenneth Branagh, Winston Churchill, over a dozen American Presidents, millions of U.S.and world citizens ( as well as over 75 percent of England’s indigenous population — many of which– unknowingly, share this legacy of honor.)  ALL those living in freedom and those longing for freedom will be outraged and ultimately inspired by this provocative true story.

The English word “refugee” would come about due to Huguenots exile and escape from France which amounted to some 1/4th million out of France’s 20 million citizens, and during the years 1572-1690, most of which were concentrated in the West and in the South.

After over 50,000 had fled to England, they made up 5% of London town at a time when the London population was 10% of England. Genetically, the statistical probability that the next English person you meet in England will have at least some Huguenot ancestry is 75%. Refer to

From: Bernard Cottret’s The Huguenot in England and to Peter Steven Gannon’s volume on Refugees in the Settling of Colonial America.

[NOTE: This movement of refugees is said to have been the "largest forced migration of Europeans in the early modern period." Refer to Jon Butler's The Huguenot in America: A Refugee People in New World Society. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1983.

Huguenot descendant short list:
Robert Duvall, Warren Buffet, Johnny Depp, Steve Forbes, Lawrence Olivier, Charlize Theron, Winston Churchill,Tyrone Power, Megan Fox, John Rockefeller, George Patton, George Will, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Tiffany, A.I. Dupont, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Jay, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Francis Marion, Davy Crockett, John Sevier, Peter Mark Roget, James Bayard, Jean Belmain--French scholar,French-language tutor to King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I.  George Washington and over a dozen American Presidents also have documented Huguenot ancestry.  Many more world citizens,knowingly and unknowingly, share this legacy of honor.

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THE EXILE FROM FRANCE...

Your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
Your meandering rivers,
Your flowing streams,
Your roads that lead everywhere,
Your humble hamlets,
Your teeming towns,
Your courtly cities ablaze,
Your toiling farmers,
Your masterful merchants,
Your artful artisans and would-be scholars,
Your poor, pious, pampered, and princely,
Men and women of all nuances and shades,
Your lives so colorful,
Vivaciously vibrant,
But oppressive,
Struggling to be free,
To break the shackles of an ancient age,
Blood of my fathers,
Tears of my mothers,
Roots of my branches,
All intertwined in your soil so deep,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my heart weeps for you,
From whom I was so cruelly exiled,
In leaking boats,
Over frightful borders,
Hurried journeys in the darkened nights,
Leaving behind so much of me,
Embittered, impoverished, but free,
Angered by the fearful tyrant,
The betraying countrymen,
The yoke of intolerance,

Saddened by the theft of freedom,
The rupture of dreams,
The hopeful hope of a speedy return,
A new beginning,
In a strange new land,
Different, engulfing, demanding,
But flexible, sensitive, and free,
This land that welcomed me,
Exhausted, lonely, afraid,
Sadder, but wiser,
Stronger and prouder,
Reaffirmed in honor,
From a life torn asunder,
This exile that became me,
Days turned into years,
And years into decades,

And generations multiply and divide,
A new language,
A new name,
A new home,
New loves to love,
In this no longer strange new land,
But, your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
My colorfully vibrant memories,
That my mind cannot repress,
My meandering gazes ablaze,
That go with me everywhere,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my soul dreams of you,
I am a part of you,
And you are a part of me,
The dreams,
The hope,
The faith,
That neither tyranny,
Nor time,
Can ever erase.

Abraham D. Lavender

In 1985 French President Mitterrand would issue an official apology to the Huguenots, on behalf of the French government and the French people, for Louis XIV's diktat revoking the Edict of Nantes, and a commemorative postage stamp would be issued characterizing this our modern era as under the suasion of "Tolerance, Pluralism, Brotherhood."]

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