Pureland Pictures

Works In Progress

If you’d like to support any of these works-in-progress please make a development fund contribution here and indicate the project so Emily can thank/credit/update you accordingly. Emily’s current narrative feature THIRSTY was 13 years in the making and development funds for independent filmmakers are very hard to come by so please know that she deeply appreciates any financial support of her work. If you are not able to make a contribution but would like to receive additional information or updates on any of these projects please email info@purelandpictures.com

PURELAND PICTURES WORKS IN PROGRESS

PURELAND is a half hour comedy-drama that follows the travails of two down-on-their-luck women in Berkeley.

  • Themes Explored - Income inequality and race relations in the Bay Area, the moral complexity of sex work, homelessness, feminism at the street level and gender inequity in tech. Pureland also has a strong spiritual streak and includes characters that are Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist.

  • Development Stage - Pilot episode and three additional episodes have been scripted, pitch deck/show bible are also complete.  Seeking production company partner.

THE DEATH OF GUNS is a narrative feature that follows the story of three courageous Californians who succeed in bringing about drastic gun control measures in the state and inspire a nation to do the same.

  • Development Stage - Treatment has been completed. Seeking seed funds for script development.

TRASH MAN is a narrative feature film about a sanitation worker and sex addict in Hayward who is trying to be a good dad against the odds.

  • Development Stage - Treatment has been completed. Seeking seed funds for script development.

JEWISH GIRLS is a 3 part documentary series about how and why the filmmaker raised her mixed race daughters as Jews.

  • Development Stage - Seeking seed funds for trailer edit.

  • Synopsis - In production since 2009, JEWISH GIRLS is a 3 part documentary series about how and why the filmmaker raised her mixed race daughters as Jews.  It is the story of a unique Jewish family grappling with the past and embracing a hopeful future.

Emily's father escaped Nazi Germany and his story of grit and survival had a huge impact on her identity. However, as a young person Emily never felt like "a real Jew" because her mother is Irish-American. When Emily became a mother herself she decided to give her daughters a gift she often yearned for herself as a child: Jewish faith and community.

Chapter One of JEWISH GIRLS will focus on Emily’s 94 year old father. Like many Holocaust survivors, he has a complex relationship with Judaism since being Jewish was a source of great pain during his childhood.  He encountered deep anti-semitism both in his homeland and also as a young refugee in New York City but was able to rise above these hardships and even got a scholarship to MIT despite the Jewish quotas at that time. Years later, Emily encourages her father to seek reparations from the German government and also to embrace his granddaughters' Jewish upbringing.  Mr. Abt does both, albeit reluctantly, and a beautiful story unfolds that cumulates with him tearfully clutching a Torah scroll on the bimah while his granddaughter chants in flawless Hebrew.

JEWISH GIRLS will capture this unique Jewish family as they receive Hebrew names, observe Shabbat, attend Jewish summer camp, travel to Israel and India, become Bat Mitzvahs (while dressed in Saris) and fast for Yom Kippur. This is a series that will deeply embrace an inclusive, "big tent" view of Judaism. After all, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew.