By the close of the decade I worked on a novel, polished my memoir and racked up 20 years as a software engineer. In between
final drafts of the autobiography, I published an expended version of Misery Loves Company. In May 2011 I published
Not Your Average American Girl with a limited book tour through Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Massachusetts, and
San Francisco. I usually found time to play guitar amid all that.
I became friends with filmmaker Sandra Mohr, and helped her produce Radio Wars. The film bug bit deeply—I wanted to make movies! In 2012 I proposed that Sandra shoot a no-budget comedy horror feature; I spent months writing, planning, buying things, testing gags, etc. We had a plum, no-permit-needed location opportunity. Everything was arranged. And then our lead actress flaked out with no warning at all.
To be more hands-on—producing—meant learning all I could, so I started night and weekend classes at LA Valley College. The more I learned, the more I fell in love with the cinema: its art, techniques and history. Partway through film school I got onboard with my friend M. Bernier's TV pilot, Myrna, working on the electrical crew, as a PA, and later on as an executive producer. Sadly it never got picked up.
My last major film school project was a twelve-minute short—"Valerie"—about the plight of an abused runaway who lands in even deeper trouble on the mean streets of Hollywood. Despite its meager ($4700) budget, it was accepted into the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in 2018.
I graduated film school in 2016, finished my novel Homegirl and turned it over to my literary manager. My mom suggested she and I climb Mount Lassen that summer, and despite me not hiking for over a decade I said "sure!" I bought boots and got myself in shape over a month. Soon I became a fiend for hiking! I toyed with a few scripts but nothing happened production-wise until Sandra suggested we make a documentary about female poker champions. Of course I said YES!
We shot POKER QUEENS at the 50th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, complete with a huge suite for the filmmakers and sitdown interviews. We got some major players in our movie including Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu and took it to market in 2020. Not only is it working its way toward turning a profit, I am proud of us for making this love letter to women playing a "man's" game. And there's more to come!
I became friends with filmmaker Sandra Mohr, and helped her produce Radio Wars. The film bug bit deeply—I wanted to make movies! In 2012 I proposed that Sandra shoot a no-budget comedy horror feature; I spent months writing, planning, buying things, testing gags, etc. We had a plum, no-permit-needed location opportunity. Everything was arranged. And then our lead actress flaked out with no warning at all.
To be more hands-on—producing—meant learning all I could, so I started night and weekend classes at LA Valley College. The more I learned, the more I fell in love with the cinema: its art, techniques and history. Partway through film school I got onboard with my friend M. Bernier's TV pilot, Myrna, working on the electrical crew, as a PA, and later on as an executive producer. Sadly it never got picked up.
My last major film school project was a twelve-minute short—"Valerie"—about the plight of an abused runaway who lands in even deeper trouble on the mean streets of Hollywood. Despite its meager ($4700) budget, it was accepted into the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in 2018.
I graduated film school in 2016, finished my novel Homegirl and turned it over to my literary manager. My mom suggested she and I climb Mount Lassen that summer, and despite me not hiking for over a decade I said "sure!" I bought boots and got myself in shape over a month. Soon I became a fiend for hiking! I toyed with a few scripts but nothing happened production-wise until Sandra suggested we make a documentary about female poker champions. Of course I said YES!
We shot POKER QUEENS at the 50th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, complete with a huge suite for the filmmakers and sitdown interviews. We got some major players in our movie including Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu and took it to market in 2020. Not only is it working its way toward turning a profit, I am proud of us for making this love letter to women playing a "man's" game. And there's more to come!
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� Christine D.Beatty
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