Editor’s Note: Supporting women should not be limited to a month. So at Reel 360 News, we have decided to amplify and promote dynamic women’s voices all year long. Today, let us introduce you to a savvy and talented filmmaker, Gen LaGreca.
Gen LaGreca is an award-winning executive producer, film writer, and novelist. Her writings offer innovative plots and themes that inspire freedom and personal achievement. Her most recent movie, Noble Vision, has won over two dozen film-festival awards. Her four novels have won thirteen literary awards, garnered praise from magazine magnate Steve Forbes, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, Past President of the American Medical Association Edward Annis, and others.
Gen has written the stage play adaptations of two of her novels, Just the Truth and Noble Vision. Her commentaries have appeared in Forbes, The Orange County Register, Real Clear Markets, and other publications.
She currently serves as president of the Winged Victory Foundation. Prior to fiction writing, she worked as a pharmaceutical chemist, business consultant, and corporate writer.
Founded by Gen LaGreca, Winged Victory Foundation’s mission is to communicate and champion the ideas of freedom through the magic of storytelling and the arts. The charitable 501(c)3 organization produces programs and holds events for educational, artistic, and literary purposes, including producing and distributing films, stage plays, and novels, supporting dance and music composing, and offering grants to nonprofit theatre and community groups to produce its plays or show its films.
Let’s meet Gen!
What’s your origin story?
An important choice-point came when I was in middle school. I had planned to go to a vocational high school. No one in my family had ever gone to college, and the thought of my going never crossed my mind. My aunt, who was my only role model at the time, was a hair stylist, and cosmetology appealed to me as being more glamorous than any other work the people around me were doing, so I was going to apply to high schools that offered that training.
A guidance counselor in my school changed the entire course of my life. She called me into her office and explained that she couldn’t put my vocational applications through. I had scored high on IQ and other tests, so she tried to persuade me that I belonged in an academic high school preparing for college. She told me to think about the matter, adding that if I insisted on vocational school, she would need to see my parents in her office. This conversation set me wondering about new prospects and wider horizons, which quickly seemed exciting and challenging. I decided to take her
advice.
This was a major turning point in my life. It showed me that I could dream a lot bigger than I was doing. I went on to graduate from an academic high school and two colleges where I received B.S. and M.A. degrees. Years later, I tracked this counselor down to tell her how she had changed my life. It was very gratifying to her. I say to whomever helps a young person to dream big—be it a teacher, a counselor, a friend, or a parent—please know that you’re a hero of the highest order!
How did you break into film?
I worked in several different fields before I found my passion to write fiction and produce films. I was a pharmaceutical chemist, then a business consultant. All this background helps in my writing. For example, my first novel and movie, Noble Vision, is a medical thriller, which calls on my experience in healthcare. One of my upcoming films, Just the Truth, features a family’s corporate dynasty, which calls on my experience in business. At one point, I was writing videos for staff training programs in the hospitality field.
My scripts were becoming more and more colorful and plot-oriented, until one day, a client said to me: “Gen, I can’t have romance in this video about restaurant sanitation.” That was an Aha Moment! I realized I wanted to write fiction. I had no idea how to, only the desire to do it. It felt as if I were in Hoboken and wanted to get to Shangri-la. I had to find a way to get there.
Who were your mentors, and how did they influence your journey?
At the dawn of drama, Aristotle, in his work on esthetics, the Poetics, defines important, timeless principles of dramatic writing. He explains the primary importance of plot and how character development is woven into plot action, which is a Golden Rule for me.
Reversals of fortune and sudden revelations that thrill audiences today thrilled Aristotle too. He admired these dramatic techniques in Sophocles’ great play Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus learns in sudden, shocking revelations that he married his mother and killed his father. I work at constructing plots with surprises, twists, sudden revelations, and changes of fortune as described by our First Drama Critic.
Also, two women authors influenced me: One is Margaret Mitchell. Ever since I read Gone with the Wind, I have been enthralled with sweeping stories that capture pivotal moments in history. By weaving a narrative story around actual historical events, a writer can make history’s impact on the people of the time unforgettable. I’d read about the Civil War in school textbooks, but they couldn’t come close to leaving the indelible, deeply moving impression left on me by Gone with the Wind.
The other woman author is Ayn Rand. Through her novels, I saw how you could weave thought-provoking ideas into an entertaining narrative story. Her writings on the glory of the individual, free and unafraid, with a boundless potential for creativity, achievement, and happiness just sang to me. I wanted to create strong-willed characters imbued with their own vision, who are self-driven in their life’s journey. Her novels were wonderful examples of how to express an important theme through an absorbing plot
action.
I had other mentors, accomplished writers who taught me how to write through their novels, plays, and films that inspired me. Most notably, the superb British creator and writer of my favorite television series, Foyle’s War: Anthony Horowitz. I think he’s a master at seamlessly integrating an important theme or message with a riveting plot.
What fuels your creativity?
Passion. Living my dream makes me feel as if I’m just starting off in life! I think you have to love what you do. There’s no other way to survive the disappointments, grueling schedules, cost overruns, marketing challenges, etc., of movie making. I have a passion to see the characters of my novels leap off the page and come alive on the big screen. It’s the joy of my life.
What’s the biggest myth about women in your field?
I guess that we’re softer than the men. We’re pushovers. For example, I was the writer and executive producer on a film. After an actor had agreed to accept a role, he refused to say a passage in his script. Now, this actor was not an A- or B-list star, who would have leverage for his change requests. He was an up-and-coming talent.
The all-male director team comes to me and tells me that I have to change the lines. Well, why? There was no vulgarity or X-rated material in the passage, and the lines were vitally important in delivering the scene’s message. I wouldn’t change them. I told the team that if the actor refuses to say the lines as written, we’ll fire him and hire someone else.
I asked why was I being told that I needed to change the lines, instead of giving the actor more pushback? They said they were trying to take the “path of least resistance,” and since I was personable and nice to everyone, they thought I’d be accommodating. Was it because I was female and a warm and friendly type? You think?
It turns out that when the actor was told he had to say the passage as written, he did it! I told the crew that if they were looking for the path of least resistance, changing my script was not it. We laughed about it, but I think that by holding my ground, the message got across. After that incident, only important and well-reasoned script changes were suggested, and I repaid the team’s respect for me by considering and
accepting those changes I thought were valid.
Name a creative risk you took that paid off.
I decided at the beginning of my creative writing career not to read books on the writer’s craft. take writers’ workshops, or have formal training in the craft. I’m not implying that a formal education isn’t valuable. It’s just that in my case, I wanted to develop my own voice my own way, and I’ve always been very much a hands-on self-learner.
I looked to the best writers to be my teachers. I analyzed the works I loved. I don’t mean copying stories or characters but just learning the techniques of the craft. For example, one novelist had a wonderful way of ending her chapters that made me want to turn the page. I learned how to end chapters in my novels and scenes in my screenplays with a zinger fact or teaser, so the reader wants to go on. Another novelist wove two stories together: one showing what the killer was doing and the other showing what his unsuspecting victim was doing.
It’s a wonderful technique for building suspense that I used in one of my novels. I have notebooks of handwritten notes on novels, plays, movies, TV stories, and operas that appealed to me and why they did. It was the most wonderful experience to learn in this way. It certainly isn’t the only way to do it, but it was the most comfortable and valuable way for me. Today, my novels and films are award-winning, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that my creative risk—my belief in myself and my method—worked!
What’s your take on the rise of AI?
I love AI! We’re incorporating it in our sci-fi drama, Fugitive from Asteron, which is now in post-production. We’re integrating AI-generated images and footage, with LED volume screens and the use of the advanced software, Unreal Engine, along with green screens and practical shots. We’re at the cutting edge of the new technology.
AI and the other digital tools are available to indie filmmakers who don’t have seven or eight-figure budgets. AI and advanced technology levels the playing field and gives us indies a chance to compete. In my previous film, Noble Vision, one of the actresses broke out with a case of acne. In post-production, AI helped remove the blemishes in the shots quicker and more economically than special-effects humans could do on their own.
AI has enormous potential in every field. In dentistry, AI can detect tooth decay in a non-invasive way. AI can interpret certain medical scans faster and better than humans and thereby spot certain cancers before they’re detectable by a human reading of the scans. And, of course, there are self-driving cars, which will be a huge benefit. I think AI is a sea-change that will apply across the board to all or most fields. It’s like another Industrial Revolution.
But I would say that AI is not sentient; it has no consciousness and can’t become a human. It’s a highly complex and powerful computer that is programmed to do various things faster, cheaper, and better than a human can do them. In my opinion, I would never call on AI to write scripts for me. My soul writes my stuff, not a machine.
What’s a piece of advice from another woman you carry with you?
If it’s going to be, it’s up to me. A friend and mentor helped me realize that everything I want to achieve is either hard or very hard to obtain. I have to be the Prime Mover in my life, and that’s what makes life exciting. You try new things, take risks, and keep your eye on the goal posts!
Tell us about your projects
Right now, I’m working on movie adaptations of my novels. Noble Vision is completed and won many awards on the festival circuit. It’s now available on the major streaming platforms. Fugitive from Asteron is in post-production, and we’re excited about Henry Ian Cusick (Lost, MacGyver, The 100), Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), and Rory Gibson (The Young and The Restless) leading our cast.
Next is Just the Truth, a contemporary political thriller; through an intrepid reporter on a case in which her source is suddenly murdered, this story examines truth in journalism and current-day threats to it—and the protagonist and the heroine is a woman!
How do you balance ambition with self-care?
Physical self-care is easier. I do well with that. I keep up with my appearance, eat right, control my weight, and exercise daily. Emotional self-care is harder. I tend to be buried in my work and don’t take enough time out to relax, enjoy social relationships and forge new ones, etc. I’m working on that.
You’re writing a memoir. What’s the title?
She Lived Her Dream. It took a while to get there, but now that I’m finally making movies of my novels, I’m truly living my dream.
Go to Karaoke song.
She’s a Maniac from Flash Dance. Hands down, my song!
In 10 years, what do you hope to look back and say you changed?
The sponsor of my films is a non-profit charity, the Winged Victory Foundation, which celebrates and champions freedom through the literary and performing arts. Our foundation is dedicated to influencing the culture with the ideas of liberty. We aim to entertain, inspire, and enlighten students and communities through novels, short stories, plays, and narrative films that portray heroic struggles for individualism and freedom. These stories dramatize the human need for liberty and celebrate a person’s
right to choose, speak, and act freely.
I hope in 10 years my work, as well as the foundation’s other activities, will leave a legacy of intelligent entertainment that teaches and inspires freedom-loving people to find their dream and live it.
Gen LeGreca’s Social Media:
X: @genlegreca
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