On Writing and Storytelling: The Moving Image – ‘Sunny in the Village of Crickets’

I am, first and foremost, a writer. I tell stories mostly through literary works, such as novellas (Reunion: A Story), novels (Reunion: Coda), and novelettes (Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen). This is my main creative outlet, and even though I don’t strictly work in a vacuum with no support (I benefited from the advice of a wonderful beta reader, Denise Longrie, when I was working on the novel a couple of years ago), this particular storytelling medium is not a team project.

Filmmaking, on the other hand, is a collaborative enterprise. Even small indie films, such as A Simple Ad, Clown 345, and Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss, require the talent, skills, and creative impulses of several people working together to bring a story to life from words in a screenplay to the screen.

Sunny in the Valley of Crickets is actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez’s 2023 surreal short film (“A despondent woman falls asleep in an Uber and wakes up in an unforeseen situation,” as Popcorn Sky Productions summarizes it.) I wrote a modest portion of the script, and I earned an “associate producer” credit; I assisted in the fundraising effort to get the movie made.

Without further ado…here’s Sunny!