Play/Screenplay // Unlocking Desire
Unlocking Desire - FILM
SHORT SYNOPSIS
A woman arrives at an institution claiming to be Blanche DuBois. There she meets diverse inmates that evoke shadow characters in Tennessee Williams' play and people from his real life. As identities blur, secrets are unlocked and questions are answered but all is not as it seems, for the woman who convinces us she is Blanche is not. Rather she is a Blanche of today lost in the tragic world of Williams play and emerging from the post-Katrina landscape of New Orleans and the cities, such as Detroit, where survivors were scattered. Ultimately Unlocking Desire is a wholly original work, transformative, poetic and intelligent; a story with a new purpose that will surprise and entertain as it provokes and moves audiences
Feature length Drama/Mystery/LGBTQIA+.
2022 marked the 75th anniversary of the 1947 premiere of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. In recognition of this we announced that UNLOCKING DESIRE has been in development and is now in early pre production with a start date of summer 2025. Contact us at: info@unlockingdesirefilm.com for more information and the logins for the Unlocking Desire Film Page where our concept trailer, character descriptions, marketing, deck, locations and two scenes we recently shot in Detroit are found..
Interior location behind the scenes photo taken during the Unlocking Desire concept trailer shoot. Actor Calhoun Koenig, Gaffer Andy Westra & DP Peter Poulos.
Behind the scenes photo taken during the Unlocking Desire concept trailer shoot on Belle Isle, Detroit. Actor: Zakiyyah BG as 'Blanche.'
We had so much great footage from the Unlocking Desire concept trailer shoot that we edited some extra scenes. Seen below is footage taken on Belle Isle in Detroit, one of our exterior locations. Blanche (Zakiyyah BG) is seen waking up under the bust of medieval poet Dante Alighieri. In Blanche's monologue she asks "What circle of hell did Dante condemn the lovers to?" In Unlocking Desire, we see her on Belle Isle in a flashback. How she got there and why she is there is one mystery of Unlocking Desire. This flashback and other scenes have now been filmed. To see these scenes and our full Concept Trailer contact us at info@unlockingdesirefilm.com for more information and the logins for the Unlocking Desire Film Page.
Most recently the Unlocking Desire film project was ANNOUNCED at the Cannes Film Festival in Variety.
The Unlocking Desire producers are aiming for a festival run that will include the Cannes Film Festival
Unlocking Desire was a FINALIST for the FROM THE HEART PRODUCTIONS spring 2023 grant. Unlocking Desire lost to a documentary film in post production, but Founder / Director Carole Lee Dean called Unlocking Desire "the best art house film we have seen in years."
The Unlocking Desire film project is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions, a top rated 501c3 organization that has been helping independent filmmakers fund their films for 30 years. Through From the Heart Productions, your donation to the Unlocking Desire film project is 100% tax deductable! From the Heart keeps a small fee, to administer the transaction for us. You can elect to cover part of this fee when you donate. DONATE When you click the DONATE button below you will be taken to the From the Heart Productions PayPal page for Unlocking Desire where you may safely make a donation using your PayPal account or a credit or debit card. You will be provided with the proper information to deduct this donation on your taxes. If preferred, you may send a check to From the Heart Production; please contact us at info@unlockingdesirefilm.com for more information. Donors are given exclusive access to the Unlocking Desire Film page and will be thanked in the credits of the film.
RECENT PRESS
May 3, 2024 Detroit Free Press Article
March 4, 2024 Pride Source Article
A POEM AND RESARCH PUBLISHED"Kicks" a work in progress poem written by Tennessee Williams in 1976 that Barbara Neri DISCOVERED in The Williams Research Center in The Historic New Orleans Collection, and that in part inpired Neri to write Unlocking Desire, has been PUBLISHED with Neri's editor's note in the 2021 Tennessee Williams Annual Review.
Barbara Neri's wellspring of RESEARCH that led to her writing Unlocking Desire has been PUBLISHED in the 2018 Tennessee Williams Annual Review Neri's article is entitled: "Loving Thee Better After Death: Tennessee Williams allusion to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her Sonnets from the Portuguese in A Streetcar Named Desire". Along with the article, TWAR also published one of Neri's visual art works, "Double Vision," a stereograph construct that can be seen here.
Barbara Neri's screen adaptation of UNLOCKING DESIRE was named a 2017 quarterfinalist by LA's CineStory Foundation Fellowship Competition. Neri's UNLOCKING DESIRE screenplay also WON the 2017 MARFA FILM FESTIVAL SCREENPLAY COMPETITION and was read live by professional actors from across Texas during the Marfa Film Festival held July 12-16 in Marfa Texas.
Actors Ralph Neri (narrator), Indigo Real (Rose), Jennifer Griffin (Violante), Adam Guerra (Hank), Jem Goulding (Blanche), Woody Mitchell (Raoul) reading Unlocking Desire at 2017 Marfa Film Festival (Ken DeZarn (Jim), Lorraine Lemon (Ozzie) and director Amy Goodyear are off camera.)
Marfa Film Festival director Robin Lambaria and Barbara Neri at the 2017 reading of her winning screenplay Unlocking Desire.
UNLOCKING DESIRE - PLAY
UNLOCKING DESIRE was originally Neri's play that premiered and was preformed September 23 through October 8, 2011 at Detroit's Marlene Boll Theater. Read John Quinn's review: Unlocking the past; unlocking the future
Blanche's Dream in Detroit
Below is a slide show of images, taken in Detroit September 5, 2011, that served as both an epilogue and prologue to Neri's play UNLOCKING DESIRE The locations are now part of Neri's screenplay adaptation of her play .
CAST (from 2011 play production)
PLAY DEVELOPMENT
A scene from Neri's play was presented on Nov 8, 2008 at a 555 Gallery Studio Fundraiser event "555 Bailout" www.555arts.org. Neri's play Unlocking Desire was read on March 16, 2010, at the Planet Ant Theater in Hamtramk, MI. Unlocking Desire was also read August 19, 2010 as part of the Renegade Theater Festival in Lansing MI. Unlocking Desire was also read January 31, 2011 at The New Theater Project at 'MIX' in Ypsilanti, MI. Thanks to all these fine organizations!
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE Unlocking Desire
Barbara Neri's play was produced in a multimedia, site specific, world premiere production in the heart of Detroit at the Marlene Boll Theater located in the downtown YMCA at 1401 Broadway. Nine performances (September 23 through October 8, 2011) were produced by KHOROS Inc. a non-profit Michigan arts organization founded in 1982. The production was Artistic Directed by Barbara Neri, Directed by John Jakary, Scenic Design by Elisa Limberg of Berlin, Germany, lighting Design by Dave Early, Costume Design Jomarie Soszynski and projections of original photography, video and New Orleans archival images edited by Alivia Zivich. The production featured Detroit Metro’s finest actors – Linda Rabin Hammell, Kenny Kono, J Michael Morgan, Eric Niece, Sean Paraventi, Yolanda Perez, Madelyn Porter, Sean Rodriguez, Kristen Wagner and Krista Schafer.
2011 marked the 100th birthday of Tennessee Williams - our poet of the American Theater. And though not written with his centenary in mind, Neri's Unlocking Desire was a fascinating homage to him. Read the 2011 Press Release
PRESS|REVIEW|PODCAST
Listen to the podcast from: Encore LIVE! - Unlocking the secrets behind 'Unlocking Desire'
Read John Quinn's review: Unlocking the past; unlocking the future
Hear the WDET interview with Rob St Mary. Learn about D/NOLA: Local Artist is 'Unlocking Desire' to build Detroit-New Orleans Connection
Image: Elisa Limberg, scenic designer from Berlin Germany and resident artist at Detroit's 555 Gallery, created the site specific set design for Barbara Neri's "Unlocking Desire."
See more images of Elisa Limberg’s set for Unlocking Desire: https://www.elisalimberg.com/projekte-1/unlocking-desire/