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As my screenplay THE GODDESS IN EXILE lingers in my metal file cabinet it still remains relevant, if not more so than when I wrote it in 1995. The #MetToo movement has focused on sexual harassment and rape, not wife murder when there are no witnesses or direct evidence. The collective power of women who accuse men of abuse has forced the media and the law to support their credibility. Having been part of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960’s that resulted in the Equal Rights Amendment and advances in women’s political, economic, academic and reproductive rights, I believe the difference today is marked by massive demonstrations driven by social media rather than the intellectual arguments put forth by secular feminist authors such as Betty Freidan, Gloria Steinem and Kate Millett. The cultural
transformations in America have become the forefront of revolutions that have spread throughout the modern world.
THE GODDESS IN EXILE is a fictionalized account of the brief life of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta that deals with themes of wife murder, the natural versus the man-made world and the mythic feminine. Ana Mendieta’s death at age 36 became a scandal that rocked the art world at its zenith making headlines ["Sculptor in Village Reindited in the 1985 Death of His Wife", New York Times; "A Death in Art", cover feature New York Magazine]. My screenplay adapts the story of her alleged murder by her husband, prominent conceptual artist Carl Andre, who was acquitted by a judge without a jury and explores the premise ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. The action takes place in the vivid milieu of the New York City art scene in the 1970's-80's, capturing the excitement of the avant-garde intelligentsia with character vignettes from the highest echelons of American artists and art world
doyennes.
Ana’s work was given a retrospective in the summer of 2004 at the Whitney Museum, NYC, entitled “Ana Mendieta: Earth Body Sculpture and Performance 1972-1985”, that included her autobiographical subjects in photographs, film, found objects, sculpture and drawings. It is sad that some of the work shows her body on the ground covered in blood that seem to represent a premonition of her death when she laid on a roof below her Tribecca loft window after she was either pushed by her husband or jumped as he alleged. Because Carl Andre is still alive today, my screenplay only interprets Ana’s story, yet captures the essence of her art.
The story explores the intellectual battle of competitive egos that escalates between Elvira and Hans. Elvira’s work evolves from terra cotta sculptures of female figures in allegorical relationship to their spiritual growth to a portrayal of the divine feminine on-site in natural settings. Her work is the antithesis of Hans’ art that fills empty space with geometric configurations. When Elvira's work begins to gain popularity at the same time interest in Hans' art wanes, he becomes insanely jealous. My story holds fast to Elvira’s artistic premise that the Goddess within is truly in exile in modern civilization.
THE GODDESS IN EXILE
Opening Scenes
1 - EXT. ELVIRA'S STUDIO, STAIRWELL – DUSK LATE SUMMER
The screen is dark. SOUND of slow moving high-heeled footsteps on the last three steps of a wooden staircase, several steps in a hall, then a key turning in a door.
2 - INT. ELVIRA’S STUDIO - DUSK LATE SUMMER
POV JOANNE HARRIS, (an attractive blonde in her mid- thirties who was ELVIRA’S best friend) the door opens and she enters a dimly lit room of what appears to be a misted vault of mummies; but when JOANNE switches on a low overhead light it becomes clear that she is in an artist's studio filled with large, terra cotta (earthenware clay) sculptures of women covered with strips of clear plastic over moist rags.
JOANNE studies the studio and sculptures (some complete, some still wrapped), amidst kegs of clay, kiln, piles of tree branches, rocks, leaves and flowers. On rows of overhead shelves are authentic South American handicrafts, baskets, blankets and pre-Columbian relics. Photographs of symbolic female forms in natural settings adorn the wall.
POV JOANNE, she goes to a metal sink and turns on the faucet, fills a bucket with water, takes a natural sponge and puts it into the bucket. JOANNE takes the bucket over to a large piece of sculpture next to the studio's tall loft window that is covered by a half-drawn shade.
JOANNE'S hands unwrap the plastic around the sculpture, dip the sponge into the water and moisten the rags around the sculpture which until it is finished must be kept moist. As her hands trace and moisten the rags, the form of the sculpture becomes clear. It is of a slender, female torso with head held low against her chest. As the moistening continues, it becomes evident that the piece is a female crucified on a wooden cross.
CLOSE SHOT of the sculpture's pitiful head adorned with thorn wreath.
JOANNE reaches up to grab another small, wrapped sculpture on a shelf above the crucifix. She is surprised when a large, leather bound sketchbook diary falls out of its hiding place in the sculpture's wooden base and into her hands. She opens the pages and looks at ELVIRA OLMOS' personal diary filled with sketches and private thoughts.
JOANNE hits on the page with writing and several studies of the crucified female, then turns to the last page.
JOANNE takes the diary to the window, pulls the shade up and sits on its wide inner ledge continuing to read. As the window faces west and a scarlet sun is beginning to set, she turns her head to study the view.
3 - EXT. VIEW NYC, ELVIRA’S STUDIO - DUSK LATE SUMMER
The view from ELVIRA'S 7th top floor studio, adjacent to HANS WHIT'S loft in Tribeca, captures the side of the building next store and a black rooftop that is about 5 flights below the window.
4 - INT. ELVIRA'S STUDIO - DUSK LATE SUMMER
JOANNE reads from the last page of the diary. As she reads out loud, the camera studies ELVIRA'S early sculptures of Mary on the top shelf. JOANNE's voice and ELVIRA'S voice merge, then ELVIRA becomes the narrator.
ELVIRA'S (voice over)
July 7, 1985 - Our fights are getting worse and worse. Hans will not accept that I want a divorce. Why can't he let go of our marriage? What could it mean to him now that we've grown so far apart? My art is the world to me now. By creating goddesses in clay and nature - by portraying every aspect of woman's mystery as a celebration - woman as virgin, seductress, weaver of destiny, lover, mother, wise woman, - Goddess in myths of the night and day - the vessel of creation, I gain confidence. By studying the spiritual ancestors of Mary I've learned how the Goddess was overthrown by men who gave her a bad name.
JOANNE is stunned from her reverie when she has an awareness of something occurring next to her - a psychic impression of what happened a week before. She looks around her and although she does not see HANS or ELVIRA, she senses their energy moving about the room and hears their voices engaged in a violent fight. JOANNE becomes frightened. Although she knows she is just imagining what she hears, she has no control.
ELVIRA'S (voice over)
I want a divorce, get out of my life! I know you are having an affair with Nina.
HANS' (voice over)
I won't let you leave me, you spic bitch.
ELVIRA'S (voice over)
Don't! Stop! Stop! No - no - no.
5 - EXT. VIEW NYC FROM ELVIRA'S WINDOW – EVENING SUMMER
JOANNE follows an invisible form falling.
SOUND of a body hitting the roof below.
6 - EXT. VIEW NYC FROM ELVIRA'S WINDOW – EVENING SUMMER
LONG SHOT of ELVIRA'S body face up covered with a white sheet and splattered with blood.
CAMERA ZOOMS closer to her body it becomes transformed into an earthenware figure of ELVIRA covered with leaves.
CLOSE SHOT of the crushed form, then VERY CHOSE SHOT of her right hand.
7 - EXT. ANDEAN MOUNTAIN FOOTHILLS - SUMMER DAY
CLOSE SHOT of ELVIRA'S hand as it becomes alive and reaches into the dirt, pulling out a handful of clay.
MEDIUM SHOT of her other hand digging and then FULL SHOT the figure of ELVIRA as a 12-year-old girl, dressed in a summer frock. She fills a basket with raw clay.
LONG SHOT of ELVIRA skipping happily down a steep slope in the Andean foothills of her home in Huancayo, Peru. As ELVIRA trips down the mountain, she becomes younger and younger until she reaches the bottom as a 5-year-old girl.
ELVIRA'S (voice over)
I have been working in clay since I was a young girl. The clay in my mountain, near our home in Huancayo Peru was like shit in the gut of the earth. That is why it was so hard to find. Why my mountain decided to have her bowels so high, I don't know. My mountain keeps her feet in the air perhaps to keep them cool.
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