RECO'S MAGIC Short to Debut at the 2017 California Women's Film Festival
Reco's Magic, a comedy short that tells the story of a middle class family that has fallen on hard times and how the entrepreneurial spirit of the children comes to the rescue.
The film will make its festival debut, at the Winter California Women's Film Festival, January 6 - 8, in Los Angeles.
The California Women's Film Festival is a biannual event (Winter and Summer) that celebrates women filmmakers, artists and writers by providing a showcase and networking forum in the heart of Hollywood.
The film is a true family affair. Similar to the films theme, "Reco's Magic" was a family project, directed by veteran filmmaker Corinne Jayaweera ("The Spirit of Iris"), executive produced by husband Surya, and written by their three children: Kaylee-Anna, 17, Everett, 14, and Sorin, 12, who also act in the film. Corinne Jayaweera also served as the film's producer along with Leon Aeryk.
"It is a fun short about the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship, from a family of entrepreneurs," says Surya.
According to Corinne: "I wanted to direct a short comedy involving my children so that I could not only grow my reel, but also their reels as well. They wanted to try their hand at writing and so a project was born."
Though young and just beginning to test their creativity in the film festival world, all three children felt the experience made an indelible impact on their lives:
"It was wonderful being able to see the process of actually putting together a short film and I love seeing our work up on the screen." Kaylee-Anna
"It was a truly amazing experience, learning how to write a great story that captures audience's attention and then acting out the very model that I saw in my head as I wrote the comedy." Everett
"It was extremely fun developing the story line for this project. I have had the amazing opportunity to meet such fun amazing crew. I am also looking forward to acting in future films. This project really inspired me to continue writing and acting." Sorin
Corinne Jayaweera's last documentary short "The Spirit of Iris" recently completed a successful film festival run, and followed the life of Iris Cummings Critchell, a trailblazing woman, who swam in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and went on to be one of the earliest groups of women to ferry planes for the Air Transport Command in World War II.
"Iris truly embodies the phrase, 'life favors the prepared mind'. After hearing of her marvelous adventures and stories throughout the years, I felt her story needed to be shared. It is a story of inspiration and preparation for life, yet, many people have never heard of her and that had to change!"
Corinne Jayaweera was born and raised in Southern California where she still resides today. Since childhood, her passion has been fine arts and International Relations. She graduated from the University of Redlands with a double major in Asian Studies and Sociology/ Anthropology with minors in Music and Dance. "CJ" has enjoyed her career in various academic roles, most recently at Claremont Graduate School as an event coordinator for THE MENTOR Program and Kravis Concept Plan business competition. But her first love of fine arts was still exerting its pull, and she left her stimulating academic career to focus on her fledgling film production and event planning company. Her personal charitable causes include raising funds for cancer research at the City of Hope, and ALS research directly with Augie's Quest.
"Reco's Magic" will screen at 11:30am, Saturday, January 7th at the Acme Theater, 135 North LaBrea, Los Angeles, 90036. Tickets are $13 and can be purchased in advance at www.calwomensfest.com/Ticket_and_Schedule.html or at the box office prior to the screening.
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